Dawntrail sees Final Fantasy XIV falter on its greatest strength

REPUB: Its latest expansion sees the long-running game lose its storytelling prowess, but sharpen just about everything else.

I won’t go into what it took for me to get this screenshot. Or how long it took either. Those who ‘know’, know.

This is a republished review with some additional context — and pictures! I’m returning from my break in April.

Final Fantasy XIV Online’s latest patch (7.20) is out today, so I figured this is a good a time to repost this review from July last year.

For those not in the know: Live service games like Final Fantasy XIV Online tend to update every few months with new content. This keeps players coming back. It lands in the form of a patch — a downloaded update to the game.

This is what makes them ‘forever games’. They just keep going. It’s been running like this for almost 15 years now since the game was rebooted in 2010. As it stands, the team behind Final Fantasy XIV Online expect to pump out another three main games with no talk of sunsetting the title.

Nothing is certain but surely it would need to move to a new platform eventually? The main reason for doing so: The foundat…