The Return of the MMO – Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn

With the long list of disappointing MMO’s, SquareEnix has made something wonderful.

Final Fantasy 14 was initially released in 2010 on PC to a very exciting crowd of gamers waiting on something new since Final Fantasy 11 had come out in 2004.

The games initial release had some major backlash from gamers who were so excited for a new game, only to find out it was filled with bugs and had a terrible interface. SquareEnix had also promised a multi-platform release much like FF11 had, but with it being scrapped on 360 and PS3, console gamers felt very left out of the loop when it came to playing one of the only MMO’s that had originally catered to the console gaming community.

Eventually, enough was enough and the decision was made to scrap FF14 for something better. The announcement was made on October 14th, 2011 to reinvent the game and on November 11th, 2012 the servers went black.  This trailer was released when the servers went down and the collective jaws of the gaming community dropped in awe.

A Realm Reborn was then released on August 27th, 2013 after extensive beta testing and community feedback. SquareEnix took all the feedback to heart and ensured that they were not going to let anyone down this time. The re-release of the game was met with great reviews, major media outlets were giving it 8/10 plus. It was a game with depth, a splendid battle system and graphics that were beautiful. A Realm Reborn finally felt like a Final Fantasy game and delivered every thing that we wanted.

I was lucky enough to play the beta and then purchase the game when it came out. I was a huge WoW player from vanilla straight to cataclysm, and fell out once the MMO began to feel stale and outdated. I was very skeptical of the new game and was afraid I was just going to get burned again, so once I got the invite for the beta I installed and played with extreme caution. But once I entered the world and created myself a character I felt a little flutter in my heart that was long lost. FF14: A Realm Reborn was fun! It wasn’t just fun but it was also deep, it had interesting quests to follow, and there were these little real time events that would pull players from the area and have them fight together to defeat an enemy or achieve a certain goal. SquareEnix may had been able to start rebuilding the MMO genre and make it as successful as it used to be. On top of the successful PC release, a PS3 version of the game was also made, this port to the console finally made up for the slap in the face they got with the previous release.  Just recently World of Warcraft has announced a 54% drop in revenue in the past 7 months, and most gamers are leaving the game for Free 2 Play options. Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn is a pay to play service, but so far it is very much worth the monthly fee to play this gorgeous game, with a very active and friendly community.

As an end note on this, thank you SquareEnix for bringing Final Fantasy back and doing it right.