I just want to say, as someone who’s actually NOT that big an FF fan, that this game is still really good(I’ve been playing since 2.0 beta, and tried the beta of 1.0 as well). So I’d like to say that, as long as you don’t HATE FF, you can probably get into this game.

As for the review itself, it was very good. I think the biggest issue I found was the lack of mention of cross-play between PC, PS3, and PS4. I know this is mostly a PC MMORPG show(not that there are a lot of console MMOs), but I thought that’s something worth mentioning at least in passing.

As an FF14 fan let me just say you did a bang-up job with this review. I can’t speak for the morons in the fanbase, but in my mind you did a very fair and even positive review of the game that I’ve sunk quite a bit of time into. Of course I don’t want to disappoint, here’s my big long list of random facts.

The storyline does a bad job getting this across, but Eorzea is actually the name of the continent the game is set on. The world is name Hydaelyn after the big crystal that gabs at you.

Morbols actually are more accurate translation of that monster’s name than Malboro. Phonetically the Japanese is “Moruboru”, they don’t start with a “Ma” or end with a “Ro” sound.

A thing I appreciate that the combat noises is that they’re distinct for each move. I can tell the difference between Fire 1, 2, 3, and Flare purely by the noise they make, similarly as a Dragoon all 4 of my jumps sound different. All the fire spells sound like fire spells, but it’s a nice bit of polish to me that they sound like different fire spells.

I love you pointed out the king slime hat.

You hit it exactly about the extended tutorial that is FF14’s early levels. Your point about Nostalgia and series fanservice was also spot-on: FF14 was made for Final Fantasy Fans as a gateway MMO, so the early pacing problems are very deliberate. I will say that the high-end content is as complex and rewarding/challenging as any other MMO, but I will not defend that it’s often kind of a slog to get there. Many classes really don’t get all their necessary tools for quite a while, and more than one class radically revamps their playstyle from a move gained at level 50. I’m not going to say the game is flawless since you are correct about how the early levels can be frustrating for a Veteran MMO player, but if you or anyone is wondering if the game gets better or becomes harder the answer is a resounding yes.

The telegraph issue you mentioned is actually worse than that. The game checks to see who gets hit by an AoE after the casting of the enemy’s move completes, which is often before the telegraph fades and well before the animation. This means that unfortunately the game is very unkind to people with poor connections.

I also have a love-hate with handing things over. At least you can right-click things to hand them over.

Each grand company has very slightly different gear they sell in their vendors, but you are correct that it really doesn’t matter except for PvP unless you want to play dress-up.

The character-wide experience boost you mentioned for combat classes actually doesn’t require you to be level 50, you get it on any combat class that’s lower than your highest level combat class. You’ll get it when you switch classes to unlock your job at level 30.

The mist actually one of the 3 Residential districts. The Mist is the one near Limsa Lominsa, there’s also The Goblet in Ul’Dah, and the Lavender Beds near Gridania.

Limit Breaks actually have a third bar for an even more powerful effect, but that only appears when doing 8-player content. As you guessed they do get more usage in the harder instances, and the choice to use a Melee or a Ranged Limit break and when on certain bosses is a pretty big strategic consideration on hard bosses. Incidentally FF14 is odd in that 24-player raids are casual and designed to be done by Pickup Groups whereas the 8-player raids (Coil of Bahamut) represent the really bonecrushing stuff.

The report option is cleverly and annoyingly hidden. It’s under Help Desk -> Contact Us -> Report player. It really should be more visible.

In summary you did a great, objective review of the game. I really didn’t and don’t intend this post to be a litany of stuff “You screwed up”, it’s just a pile of little tiny factoids about a game I love. You hit the high points and gave a good, clear, and fair assessment of the game. I really love this game, and I really love that you gave it the sort of accurate review it deserves. That you weren’t aware the difference between Eorzea and Hydaelyn is small enough to be meaningless and doesn’t reflect badly on this review at all. I hope you will stay into the level 50 content, and moreover I hope you enjoy playing the game.