In 2010 a game called Final Fantasy XIV came out. It was awful so Bahamut broke out of a giant pokeball and torched it into oblivion and got the idiot that made it fired. Then in 2013 the guy that took the idiot's place released Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and it was glorious to the point that not only did it become super popular and basically save Square-Enix' ass financially, it launched executive producer slash real life Final Fantasy character Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida into godhood among both the playerbase and the dev community for actually pulling off the impossible Hail Mary play of turning shit into gold.
Now here we are near two years later and ready to go play in the snow with church-elves and dragons in the first expansion for ARR - Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward.
What do I buy?
Heavensward (also known as 3.0) is the first expansion and direct continuation of A Realm Reborn (2.0). Available for PS3, PS4, Windows, Steam*, and (new for this expansion) OSX, it will be launched on June 23rd (with early access for some types of preorders on June 19th) in four editions:
Just like 2.0, you only need one account, but each platform requires a seperate purchase. So if you play on Windows and PS4, you will have to buy two copies of Heavensward—one for each platform. One thing to note is that Collectors goodies are tied to your account so you only need to buy one Collectors Edition and the rest Standard Edition, but Early Access is tied to platform. In early access and beyond, if you log out in an expansion area, logging in with a 2.0 client will just throw an error and not let you in.
There will be no change to subscription pricing.
Help I'm new to MMOs! / I've played MMOs forever why do I have to n?
To new people, you're in luck: this type of MMO is not common in the Japanese market, so to start it's Babby's First Hotbar MMO. Essentially the entire 1-50 leveling process is a sort of extended tutorial that will ease you into the game's systems. MMOs vets will find it simplistic to start, but even they should pay attention to help dialogues and general goings on, lest they want to become the guy screaming about not having some feature they actually just missed unlocking because they closed a dialogue without reading it.
That said, there's something that must always be kept in mind: This is a Final Fantasy game. Or you put it more directly, this is not a MMO with a Final Fantasy coat of paint slapped on, this is a Final Fantasy game that uses a MMO gameplay engine. The answer to pretty much every "how do I unlock" question is "do the story", to the point of accessing the expansion areas involves going through the main story of 2.0-2.55. That said, it is a Final Fantasy game, so the story is at least fun. There's some sticking points, but having an actual writing and lore team means no godawful "Justice For Thrall" Metzen trash, or "HEY HEY REMEMBER THIS INTERNET MEME DO YOU HUH HUH HUH?" Basically imagine it as playing a 16-bit era FF game (storywise), just with a whole lot of people.
What class do I pick? I want to be useful! / I played FFXI which class will not make me a digital leper?
Din dong Tanaka'sdeadfired, and Yoshida actually plays MMOs himself (and isn't an idiot), so all the classes are fairly well balanced. There are no "no one wants to play with you" classes, as everyone does well in their role and brings their own unique utility to groups. Basically you're picking a role in the holy trinity of tank/healer/DPS, and even then it's not important, since this game allows a single character to be every class in the game, and you unlock changing classes before you can set foot in a dungeon, so you could pick according to the starter city's story you want and just spend a few hours grinding up a new class to 15 if you change your mind.
At character creation, you have nine choices. Your tanks are Gladiator and Marauder. Conjurer is the healing class. Arcanist, Thaumaturge, and Archer are ranged DPS, while Pugilist and Lancer are melee. Once you unlock the ability to switch classes, you can access the third melee: Rogue. One thing to note is that these are not classes in the MMO sense: they are starter, weaker versions of, in FF parlance, Jobs. Each of these, at level thirty (and level 15 of a different class) can get a "soul crystal" special item that gives a stat boost and unlocks unique skills by turning then into iconic FF Jobs. The tanks become Paladin and Warrior. Conjurer becomes White Mage, while the second healer is added to the system via Arcanist's ability to become Scholar. Arcanist can also continue with its ranged role via Summoner, while Thaumaturge become Black Mage and Archer becomes Bard. For melee, Pugilist is Monk, Lancer is Dragoon, and Rogue is Ninja.
The expansion adds new classes, as they are wont to do, of course. Once you complete the Main Scenario of A Realm Reborn and can access the fourth city-state of Ishgard, you'll be able to pick up the new classes, known as "Extra Jobs". The distinction in name is that unlike the ten Jobs from 2.0, these three have no base class, and immediately start at level 30 with their soul crystal. They are the greatsword swinging Dark Knight (tank), the star-reading Astrologian (healer), and the gunslinging Mchinist (ranged DPS).
Side note for XI refugees: Race is basically cosmetic in this game. There are stat differences, but they're so small as to be inconsequential. We're talking a maximum of four points in a stat that will reach 400-600+ in endgame 2.0 gear and even higher in 3.0. Feel free to be a giant musclewizard or a tinytank, it will have zero effect on gameplay.
Okay, I picked my starting class and designed mywaifucharacter. Which server is the Ars guild on?
Simply put, as of this writing, there isn't an Ars Free Company (the ingame lingo for guild, when you see people say "FC" this is what they mean). It's mostly to do with the original 2010 game being famously terrible, and 2.0's quality blindsiding everyone. The initial Ars players all just joined whatever server people they knew were joining.
That said, people quitting, people joining, and server transfers are leading to a consolidation, and we are directing new and returning players to come to Excalibur. It is a high population server with a very stable economy, a healthy raiding scene, and a friendly atmosphere. Things are always happening. Getting on may be an issue, as character creation is restricted based on the current live server population. The general wisdom is to create your character in the early morning hours of the US timezones.
Returning to the matter of "Ars guild" itself, there's nothing stopping new and returning players from forming one themselves. Though not all of us will move over, there's other grouping mechanisms like "linkshells" (think like irc chatroom with an invite lock) which will let people talk to more experienced members like myself and dferrantino.
More to come…
As we're still a week out from 3.0 being live, and us mostly wanting to reboot the thread, I'll end it here for now. In the coming days we'll have more info to include and be able to answer more common questions.
Gratuitous mod-abuse
The list of players can be found here.
Now here we are near two years later and ready to go play in the snow with church-elves and dragons in the first expansion for ARR - Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward.
What do I buy?
Heavensward (also known as 3.0) is the first expansion and direct continuation of A Realm Reborn (2.0). Available for PS3, PS4, Windows, Steam*, and (new for this expansion) OSX, it will be launched on June 23rd (with early access for some types of preorders on June 19th) in four editions:
- Standard Edition: Available physically or digitally, this version is only the expansion with no fluff, aside from the preorder bonuses and early access if you preorder. Available for all platforms but OSX.
- Digital Collectors Edition: Builds on the Standard Edition by adding several ingame items: a Griffin flying mount, a "Baron Helm" themed after Cecil Harvey's dark knight helmet, a "Wind-up Kain" minion, and a Fantasia race/appearance change item. Available for all platforms but OSX.
- Physical Collector's Edition: The big momma, this builds on the Digital Collector's with a big honkin' diorama box, a statue of a story related dragon to put in said box, an art book, and bluray of a bunch of 2.0 related scenes and lore. Available for PS3, PS4, and Windows. Not available for Steam or OSX.
- "Final Fantasy XIV Online": this is the bundle package for new players that includes the standard editions of both A Realm Reborn and Heavensward. This is the only version available for OSX, as the base game won't be available until Heavensward's launch. It will also not have early access (for reasons I'll explain later). Note it also does not give access to the current game, as it won't release until the others do. Available physically or digitally for PS3, PS4, and Windows, and digital only for Steam and OSX.
Just like 2.0, you only need one account, but each platform requires a seperate purchase. So if you play on Windows and PS4, you will have to buy two copies of Heavensward—one for each platform. One thing to note is that Collectors goodies are tied to your account so you only need to buy one Collectors Edition and the rest Standard Edition, but Early Access is tied to platform. In early access and beyond, if you log out in an expansion area, logging in with a 2.0 client will just throw an error and not let you in.
There will be no change to subscription pricing.
Help I'm new to MMOs! / I've played MMOs forever why do I have to n?
To new people, you're in luck: this type of MMO is not common in the Japanese market, so to start it's Babby's First Hotbar MMO. Essentially the entire 1-50 leveling process is a sort of extended tutorial that will ease you into the game's systems. MMOs vets will find it simplistic to start, but even they should pay attention to help dialogues and general goings on, lest they want to become the guy screaming about not having some feature they actually just missed unlocking because they closed a dialogue without reading it.
That said, there's something that must always be kept in mind: This is a Final Fantasy game. Or you put it more directly, this is not a MMO with a Final Fantasy coat of paint slapped on, this is a Final Fantasy game that uses a MMO gameplay engine. The answer to pretty much every "how do I unlock" question is "do the story", to the point of accessing the expansion areas involves going through the main story of 2.0-2.55. That said, it is a Final Fantasy game, so the story is at least fun. There's some sticking points, but having an actual writing and lore team means no godawful "Justice For Thrall" Metzen trash, or "HEY HEY REMEMBER THIS INTERNET MEME DO YOU HUH HUH HUH?" Basically imagine it as playing a 16-bit era FF game (storywise), just with a whole lot of people.
What class do I pick? I want to be useful! / I played FFXI which class will not make me a digital leper?
Din dong Tanaka's
At character creation, you have nine choices. Your tanks are Gladiator and Marauder. Conjurer is the healing class. Arcanist, Thaumaturge, and Archer are ranged DPS, while Pugilist and Lancer are melee. Once you unlock the ability to switch classes, you can access the third melee: Rogue. One thing to note is that these are not classes in the MMO sense: they are starter, weaker versions of, in FF parlance, Jobs. Each of these, at level thirty (and level 15 of a different class) can get a "soul crystal" special item that gives a stat boost and unlocks unique skills by turning then into iconic FF Jobs. The tanks become Paladin and Warrior. Conjurer becomes White Mage, while the second healer is added to the system via Arcanist's ability to become Scholar. Arcanist can also continue with its ranged role via Summoner, while Thaumaturge become Black Mage and Archer becomes Bard. For melee, Pugilist is Monk, Lancer is Dragoon, and Rogue is Ninja.
The expansion adds new classes, as they are wont to do, of course. Once you complete the Main Scenario of A Realm Reborn and can access the fourth city-state of Ishgard, you'll be able to pick up the new classes, known as "Extra Jobs". The distinction in name is that unlike the ten Jobs from 2.0, these three have no base class, and immediately start at level 30 with their soul crystal. They are the greatsword swinging Dark Knight (tank), the star-reading Astrologian (healer), and the gunslinging Mchinist (ranged DPS).
Side note for XI refugees: Race is basically cosmetic in this game. There are stat differences, but they're so small as to be inconsequential. We're talking a maximum of four points in a stat that will reach 400-600+ in endgame 2.0 gear and even higher in 3.0. Feel free to be a giant musclewizard or a tinytank, it will have zero effect on gameplay.
Okay, I picked my starting class and designed my
Simply put, as of this writing, there isn't an Ars Free Company (the ingame lingo for guild, when you see people say "FC" this is what they mean). It's mostly to do with the original 2010 game being famously terrible, and 2.0's quality blindsiding everyone. The initial Ars players all just joined whatever server people they knew were joining.
That said, people quitting, people joining, and server transfers are leading to a consolidation, and we are directing new and returning players to come to Excalibur. It is a high population server with a very stable economy, a healthy raiding scene, and a friendly atmosphere. Things are always happening. Getting on may be an issue, as character creation is restricted based on the current live server population. The general wisdom is to create your character in the early morning hours of the US timezones.
Returning to the matter of "Ars guild" itself, there's nothing stopping new and returning players from forming one themselves. Though not all of us will move over, there's other grouping mechanisms like "linkshells" (think like irc chatroom with an invite lock) which will let people talk to more experienced members like myself and dferrantino.
More to come…
As we're still a week out from 3.0 being live, and us mostly wanting to reboot the thread, I'll end it here for now. In the coming days we'll have more info to include and be able to answer more common questions.
Gratuitous mod-abuse
The list of players can be found here.
WARRIOR OF DARKNESS