Final Fantasy XIV: The Road That I’ve Walked

It’s been a long road but the view at the end had been worth it.

I love Final Fantasy XIV. 

It’s been almost three years since I’ve first played the game, and in that time I’ve gone from someone with no experience when it comes to MMO games to having cleared some of the hardest optional content and earning a mount that only 3.5% of all players own. And I did it from start to finish without any Level or Story skips, experiencing the story to its fullest. To say that Final Fantasy XIV has etched itself indelibly into my heart as one of my favorite of all times would be an understatement.

So when I heard that Endwalker would bring the overarching story that began with 2.0 to a close, I was a little skeptical and worried. Skeptical, because FFXIV makes a lot of money and so I can imagine that Square isn’t all too eager to see it come to an end anytime soon. And worried because… well, if you’ve played Shadowbringers then you know that was probably the apex of narratives in MMOs, and just imagining how exactly were they going to top that was too much for me.

But I can say that Endwalker lived up to the hype as far as the story went.

Without spoiling anything, I was reintroduced to characters from throughout the expansions. Major characters, minor characters, characters who you only ran across during side-quests, and all of them together basically painted a picture of just how long of a road that I walked to get to that point. In a single moment, it highlighted just how many people you’ve touched within the game, going from a simple Adventurer looking to help people out as you arrived at a new land to become the Chosen One.

And the new characters who were introduced were so impactful despite having so little time. You could sympathize with most of them, even those who would be former enemies (mind you, some were so stupid that they got what they had coming as far as I’m concerned) and understand them a lot better than before. You wished things could have been different but know they couldn’t, which makes it more bittersweet.

As for where FFXIV will go from here, they made it clear there are still regions we haven’t explored and tales to be told. But given how major the current story resolution was, I don’t think they can top it. There’s a reason you usually cap off a story when the threat is on the scale that it was for Endwalker, so I suspect they’ll have to shift the focus elsewhere.

What that focus will be eludes me, but I’ll look forward to it.