Here's the thing about FF14: it is a LONG, story-rich game. To get to the current expansion, you have to play ALL of the previous games (or pay for a skip, but don't do that). I can recommend it if you're open to taking your time and enjoying the ride, but it ain't quick.
For my money, it's totally worth the time investment, but you're looking at hundreds of hours of cutscenes, let alone the gameplay. That's not exactly something I can cheerily endorse without caveat. You're looking at playing ten-ish games worth of content where the story actually matters.
I’m open to it, so long as the in game pressure isn’t solely aimed towards big pve events to advance your character’s gear. I get competitive after a certain point and I want something to help spur me other than the story. I loved FFXI but got too into wow during the early days.
Main story is the bulk of the initial leveling process with several alternate routes for leveling secondary classes (One character can have ALL the classes in the game), there is PvP but I don't know anything about that. Gear progression is mostly from dungeon/raid activity.
what’s the dungeon raid situation? Are we talking endless mechanics etc, and high expectations or is it a bit gentler where you can learn the ropes while you get carried a bit?
It's pretty straightforward at the basic level, with telegraphed "Don't stand there" stuff. Lots of specific rotations to focus on if you want to be "good" but it's largely ignorable at the entry level. A lot of the daily content is "Roulettes" which are randomized runs of all content in the game.
I think I’ll give it a shot. I’m not in the mode where I used to be (shoot to the top of pvp and pve ladders without any regard for storyline). Harder to do that with kids. And FF always has great storylines. Does my assumption regarding great storylines hold for this one, too?
There are ups and downs, and mileage will vary, but the characters and adventures are largely memorable even if, like a lot of jrpgs, it's a lot of running back and forth to hear people talk before going to punch something really hard. Take your time and don't feel pressured to race to the end.
Last question and I’ll leave you alone I promise. Class wise, I’ve typically gone melee, but did some red mage and ninja in FFXI. Any suggestion one where to start?
There are a lot of classes to pick from but not all of them open up right from Level 1. If your the sort comfortable with tanking, I'd suggest Warrior. For caster I'd suggest Arcanist at first then Summoner. For melee, Thief to Ninja. Got nothing on healer advice.
I main Red Mage but ya gotta get a class to 50 first to unlock that one. Summoner is generally regarded as a "Easy" class, so it's not at all a bad one to dip your toes with and you get flashy summons (Pretty much every class in this game is flashy).
To the surprise of many in the physical world, I’ve been a terrible nerd a real long time. The build your own PC and lan party at every opportunity back when the internet was young and somehow less weird, nerd.
Yup. I've leveled one or two but I've done it exclusively solo. No thanks to holding others lives in my hands. Warrior tanking is easy enough that even a melee scrub like me can do it, but Tank Anxiety keeps me from doing it in a group outside of desperate guildmate emergencies.
A FANTASTIC thing they've done with a lot of the leveling (though I'm not sure if they've done everything in the earlier expacs) is give a "Duty Support" option for completing a lot of dungeons. Instead of running with real people, you run with NPCs who can generally get you through the mission.
