Final Fantasy XIV has had its shares of overwhelming trials and like a Phoenix that rose from the ashes, the team led by Naoki Yoshida has put their forward in the right direction since the relaunch. With a steady continuous stream of content and the 2015 expansion titled Heavensward, players have been enjoying every little bit of it. Last June 20, 2017, Square Enix has finally released the new expansion, Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood. Loaded with new quests, 2 new jobs, dungeons and trials, the game has extremely felt a whole lot better despite its “traditional” implementation of the MMORPG Genre.
STORY
Without spoiling much of the story, the expansion centers on helping the citizens of Ala Mhigo and Doma liberate both their respective countries that is under the rule of the mighty Garlean Empire. With main antagonist Zenos Yae Galvus, a tyrant that feels the thrill of battle is more important than ruling the lands owned by their empire. Overwhelmed by the power of the empire, the player (and his allies both new and old) will need to travel to the East to search for more allies while the others prepare for battle while an additional threat of an unknown super-weapon also looms.
GAMEPLAY
While the overall gameplay did not change, Square Enix has finally overhauled their combat system, streamlining some skills to accommodate the new skills for each class and to attempt to simplify complex rotations. They have also removed the old “Cross-Class” skill system and instead gave each Role (Tank, Healer, DPS). Another change is the addition of a “Job Gauge” for each class, making sure that each one is distinctive from each of the available classes, these indicate which job mechanic is being used and when can it be triggered, etc. These changes not only signify the courage of the developers to dynamically change each class, however at the same time, not all changes are good as some classes do feel weaker with the changes to both stats and skills. (Scholar *cough cough*)
Stats have also been changed with the complete removal of bonus stat points that can be allocated, also removing some stats such as “Accuracy” and replacing it with “Direct Hit”, “Parry” being removed in exchange for the tank-centric stat called “Tenacity”. Bards and Machinists no longer have casting times and Healers’ damage values being computed with Mind and not with Intelligence.
Some Quality of Life changes such as a better Map, upgrade-able mount speeds, Swimming/Diving and more, however one change that has could be considered controversial is that Square Enix is now selling “Jump Potions”, similar to World of Warcraft’s “Boosting” feature, each account is allowed 1 purchase that will allow the player to pick 1 class to skip to Level 60, they are also selling “Story Manuals” that will allow the player to skip the story of both “A Realm Reborn” and “Heavensward”, which is a great time saver since you will need to play all main story content in order to access the current expansion’s main story quests. There are minor graphical changes and in exchange, PS3 support has now been discontinued.
PVP has also changed, with every class having access to PVP at level 30 and all stats will be equal with gear only affecting the appearance of each character. There is also a specific set of actions/skills that will only be accessible on PVP maps and lobbies, while initially the experience rewards were overwhelming, SE decided to change (nerf) the exp rewards in their most recent updates in an attempt to combat PVP AFKers.
Two new jobs join the fray with the Red Mage and the Samurai, both DPS roles and both classes do start at level 50. I managed to try both jobs and they both felt great, both have easy to learn rotations (it does feel harder on Red Mage though) and while I do praise Square Enix for adding these two jobs, I do feel that its a shame that Square Enix did not include another Tank or Healing class as the game does have a lot of DPS choices already and the dungeon queues do take a while to pop. Since there is a new level cap of 70, there are also new class-based armors available as well and all of them look great (FYI, Glamour/Fashion is the true endgame of FFXIV).
I intentionally left out any more details on how many changes and additions have been implemented with the game as I intend to leave that for each player to explore and experience firsthand.
2 Comments
What server/world are you guys on? Just jumped on the game so I’m still a nub, but I’m a vet to mmorpgs 🙂
Hello, I play on the Tonberry server, however it is severely congested. If you are looking for a Filipino community, there is also a community in Atomos or you may try Cactuar (NA).