I’ve heard many things about Final fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn over the last year or so, but still was not sure how I would feel about it, since MMORPG’s have never been my forte. I was given a chance to play the last round of the beta for the upcoming release, and I thought I’d give my impressions of my time with the game.
After getting through the annoying login problems, I perked up pretty quickly once the opening cutscenes started. As a fan of strong story based games, which the Final Fantasy franchise has long been a master of, I really enjoyed seeing the backstory from the initial Final Fantasy XIV game and how it sets up what is going on in this game. The graphics in the cutscenes are absolutely gorgeous, which is to be expected in a Final Fantasy game.

This is followed by the creation of the actual character that you would expect in any MMORPG. While there are many things you can change about the character, there are some options that just don’t give you that many options. I believe that the face type only had four options, while the facial hair, scars, and tattoos section weren’t any better.
In most RPGs I always seem to gravitate to using strong physical based fighters, so I chose to purchase FFXIV Gil and go with the Gladiator class. You also have the opportunity to level up other classes later. There are also jobs that you can unlock later based on the level of certain classes. For instance, my goal is to achieve the Paladin job, which requires a level 30 Gladiator and Level 15 Conjurer. This actually gives players a reason to try and level up multiple classes when they know they can potentially unlock further jobs.