Final Fantasy 14 - Happy!

Rawr!


So, I have not had any interest at all in WoW since I started up on FF14, period. It is like I upgraded games. The graphics, not only the engine, which would be unfair to compare to WoW's since it is over a decade old, but the style is refreshing. Your enemies are to the point of cute when you first start out, as if you are not yet skilled enough to fight harder creatures, cooler things, more dangerous things, but the awesome looking monsters are hinted at, and you start seeing more and more of them as you increase in skill and lvl.
Your race and all when you create your character, really, don't add much to the stats, but rather, to your experience. My race is Elezen, which are basically Elves, but they are a 'noble' race, so I ride side saddle and I stand tall in perfect posture. There are other races who ride broad back on their mounts, skip, and even ones who stand cross legged and bored. This is all little characteristic stuff that adds nothing to combat, but it makes you feel closer to your own character.
The rain in this game doesn't fall straight down. The wind can push it. It can spray right toward your face. When you are in it, you actually get wet. If it is storming, there are pockets of air and rain lashing about.
When you go looking for enemies, the animal types actually live near their respective type of home, and do not wander the whole zone spread equally with equal numbers of each kind. Most zones have a lot of smaller, common animals, spread all over, and then, by the water are the mosquitos and newts while the raptors like highlands and the predators such as wolves are often in clusters of three to five. There are elementals on the maps, spread out, tending nature.
The gathering in the game has you walk up to a tree, and you have to decide whether to harvest something that you are skilled enough to get a high percentage of success at getting, or to go for something with a lower percent of success, but higher experience rewards, while knowing that you could come back for it later once you are more skilled and you would have that higher percent, but also, would you need it? Would you want just a log for making knife handles, or a full branch for making a lance? Or would you rather grab that snail crawling along the branch to cook up later for exp increasing food?
The game has the straightforward, follow this path, main story, but there are tons of side stories, some just placed in towns or around the maps as you lvl, some involved in your class training, and some, just to unlock dungeons, fun games, or even new emotes and dances.
The mounts move in manors characteristic of their species. The cat mount's claws extend and retract as it runs. The unicorn mount canters and jumps like a show horse. The dragon snorts and shrugs its wings.
The details in this game. I could go on and on. The lighting. The expressions. The game is full of examples of someone going above the call of their position and trying to add something extra to make it more special. The combat is fun, but right now, it is the GAME itself, that is impressive.
And yet, the combat, it is also engaging. I haven't gotten this excited, this much thrill, from a game in years. I haven't felt as much thrill at beating a boss (Garuda, which you fight challenging fights as low as lvl 25, this one was higher, but still) since BC in WoW. The baddies in this game start out being almost easy, but swiftly add more and more skills to avoid and more ways to find victory. Fighting requires brain function, which is such a nice change. And the bosses are sufficiently awesome and engaging that you WANT to beat them.
The minions are not all just re-skins of the bigger version of themselves, but are their own smaller, cuter model. The races have different histories and goals, unique ways of viewing the world.
The class quests are not repeats of each other. They build up to a climax at lvl 30, and then again, another as you go on, and for ANYONE who has ever been sexually abused or molested, make an Arcanist. I know, personally, the story filled me with a huge sense of closure, and I had thought myself pretty much over it all since it happened so long ago in my life.
That is another thing. The stories, and the things that are in the lives of the people in this game are not for small children. There are real issues dealt with and confronted. There are mature lessons. There is fun cute stuff, funny stuff that has you literally going lol, and yet, serious themes you get passionate about.
I wish I played it sooner. My siblings made the switch to FF14 from WoW and I wish I jumped into it faster. I wish I played it years ago. It felt hard to leave a game I had so much invested in as WoW, but now, all I can think about are all the ways I want to invest my time into FF14. All the experiences, the goals I have for the game. And it is so good to CARE about playing a game again; it is just so good to be this happy.


Rawr :)