The characters, the character-driven narrative – all of it is told with care despite a universe-ending conflict looming. It tells you that because everything it does matter. To put it simply: Final Fantasy XIV is a masterpiece and it has no qualms about telling you just that. Years upon years of lore comprise Final Fantasy XIV, but its the emotional truths discovered through the characters that carry everything else upon its back.
#Final fantasy xiv endwalker review series#
It left me with a zepyhr of excitement that too few long-running series manage to do. By no means does this undermine the current saga’s conclusion, but it’s just enough to keep you wondering and dreaming about where your adventure will head next. Everything in Endwalker’s main scenario is brought to a brilliant conclusion, but not before your character treks through new locations, friends both old and new along with lore that broadens the scope of the existing universe as well as setup for future stories to tell through hours of cutscenes – whereupon concluding a tale 11 years in the making, you would think there would be a sense of emptiness, but Final Fantasy XIV assures that there are indeed many more stories to tell. Emotional moments are always earned and there’s ten years worth of reasons to satisfy both newcomers and players who have been here since the beginning. There are just so many pieces and the story isn’t shy about having them all come about without over-indulging itself. The story goes above and beyond and it’s because of this that even the smallest thing could be construed as a spoiler. That’s the beauty of Endwalker: it does it in spades. This saga, following the conflict of two forces of nature, Hydaelyn and Zodiark, is now at its peak and falls on Endwalker to see it through to, well, its end. All throughout players have been treated with a singular saga threaded with multiple narrative pieces that have build and build upon those original foundations. With its then success cemented, the team at Square Enix brought out expansions every two years with Heavensward and then Stormblood, followed by Shadowbringers before finally paving its way to the largest expansion yet. A Realm Reborn opened the door for new stories to be told, furthering ideas set about in the original 1.0 version of the game. To understand the situation FFXIV finds itself in, we must first venture to the past when nearly ten years on, the game’s world sundered itself (through a very expansive campaign and CG cutcene) to bring forth a new beginning.
And that all culminates with the launch of Endwalker, the game’s latest expansion. The original setup might have been wrought with chaos but the payoff is everything. Final Fantasy XIV is in a unique situation where it finds itself as one of those games – a labor of love that can only be described as having earned its place in the upper echelons of the greats. Few games can truly capture the imagination in a way that spans nearly a decade worth of content.
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