So, I guess I should begin this blog with an answer to this question. Why, of all the things in the world I could start off with, am I beginning with Final Fantasy XIV? Well, because it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played. It’s really that simple.
At 32 years old, having experienced almost every gaming platform since I used to my Mega Drive in my family kitchen when I was a child (even if I did long to play a SNES instead), I’ve considered myself a “gamer” for a long time. Perhaps not as hardcore as some people. Perhaps, for the most part, I don’t have an ability to be “amazing” at most games. But a person who plays video games. A person who enjoys them. A person who gets lost in the fun they provide. And, when I got a little older, I experienced my first RPG game. That was “Baldur’s Gate”, and I was hooked on that game. I used to stay up as late as I was allowed, sitting in my mum’s bedroom, playing endlessly. I played through the game so many times. I created a bunch of different characters, enjoying the unique fun I could have with each one. And, a little later on, I did the same thing again with Neverwinter Nights. Ah, what fun I had playing those Dungeons and Dragons based games…
Years later, my friend got himself completely and utterly addicted to World of Warcraft, and I swore I would never play it because it pretty much consumed his life. He’d disappear for months on end just playing that game endlessly in all his spare time, and I hated what felt like “losing a friend” while he was playing. It wasn’t like I wanted him to solely be interested in the things I was interested in, but I felt like I didn’t even get to talk to him during these periods. There were short times when he’d want to play something else. I even tried a few of them. There was one with superheroes which was particularly fun when levelling, but got pretty boring the higher level you got. Then, when he asked me to start playing World of Warcraft, you can imagine how hesitant I was. The flipside of that, of course, was that it did mean I’d get to do more stuff with him, we’d get to chat more – a lot more, as it turns out, because we were on Skype with each other on almost a daily basis – and I’ll admit I really started liking the game. It reminded me way too much of my childhood, playing Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights for so long, and I enjoyed it. There was just one small problem with World of Warcraft… it’s rather boring on your own.
I think that’s true of most Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games though, in truth. When I got to play with my friend I loved it. When I was playing on my own I’d get distracted easily, start new characters to experiment with them, start looking for more interesting outfits than the generic ones I had (and I’ve got a thing where I really hate my characters looking “tough”, I’d much rather they look elegant and even pretty). During that experimentation phase I switched servers hoping to play with another friend of ours, who’s Canadian, but unfortunately I didn’t get to play much with him either. In fact, it seemed like all I ended up doing was playing on my own. Then I got to the end-game content and got to experience that with friends and it became far more fun again. Playing these games for me was very much a social thing. Playing through endless quests on my own, grinding out random stuff, was just dull. I never enjoyed it. And ultimately that’s why I gave up World of Warcraft forever. It got too boring. I never had anyone to play with. They all rushed through the stuff as quickly as they could and left me behind and… I didn’t want to play on my own. Collecting 20 somethings on your own, and having to kill 50 of the same thing to do it, over and over and over… was just not entertaining to me. World of Warcraft went bye-bye, and I thought with it would go my MMORPG playing time.
Recently that turned around, a little, when we started playing Neverwinter. I loved that game, for the brief time I played it. It reminded me even more of my childhood. It let you set a custom history for your character. It let you feel like the character was someone, rather than just this person who runs around killing stuff endlessly. I really enjoyed that. Unfortunately my friend didn’t, and faced with the possibility of being left alone again to play another game I gave up on that one too. But then he introduced me to Final Fantasy XIV, and that finally changed, because Final Fantasy XIV offers something those other games don’t: it offers a story that I’ve gotten genuinely invested in.
So, why would I start this blog talking about this game? For the same reason I refused to skip Heavensward to go straight into Stormblood even when given the option of buying a skip for the story. I wanted to experience the story. I wanted to see where it went. I wanted to see what happened next. And that’s not just with the main story either, even the side-stories offer you such entertainment. For example, the story you go through levelling as a weaver, learning from your guild master in how to make clothes and getting to know one particular customer who’s trying to woo the love of his life – someone who’s way out of his league as well, but he loves her anyway – is a really great story experience. I started levelling weaving because I wanted to make some of my own gear, and I wanted to make glamour prisms (as I said before, I like to look pretty) rather than having to buy them all the time. What happened along the way was that I fell in love with the story you go through there. And not just weaving either. Admittedly some professions have better stories than others – I really liked the story for the alchemist as well – but all of them are good enough that I wanted to see how they ended and didn’t just want to skip through the scenes.
On top of that, the fact that you don’t need to play multiple characters to do multiple “jobs” is fantastic! It’s unlike anything else I’ve played in that regard. I get to play just as my one character, who I like to think has a history and a personality of her own – and yes, wears a pink dress in the game right now, which inspired me to call her ‘The Girl in the Pink Dress’, which then inspired this whole blog as I’ve now kind of expanded it to be a nickname for myself as well as my character – and I get to constantly find new challenges, constantly find new experiences, and in each of the stories I’ve completed so far – A Realm Reborn and Heavensward – find new characters that I’ve loved the story of, lose and regain allies, and goddamn if the story for some of those allies hasn’t been emotional! Our former leader in A Realm Reborn, who disappeared at the end of the game… man I wanted to find her so badly in Heavensward. I was thrilled when I came across other characters too, and gutted when our new allies ended up sacrificing themselves or turned against us. When one of them died I really felt the emotion of the story and his loss, especially in how senseless his death was in comparison to how noble some of the others have been.
In short, there’s no game quite like Final Fantasy XIV just for the story. It’s made me develop a personality for my character, and get to see her and how she evolves along with the game. The Dragsonsong War, while starting out a bit tedius, built to one of the greatest experiences I’ve had in gaming by the end, with the twists and the turns to the story, the revelations about the lies told along the way, and the evolution of the side characters you met way back in A Realm Reborn, who seemed like nothing NPCs and end up becoming genuinely loved characters, is just incredible. Hell, when one of them invited me to his house for dinner I found myself actually really wanting to see where he lived… and this is a character in a video game! The story, and his evolution as a character, had me caring about him to the point that I wanted to go to his house and have dinner with him. That may seem insane, but it’s just proof of how GOOD this game is.
So yes, this blog is going to start out with Final Fantasy XIV as I review Heavensward (having finished it earlier tonight) and enjoy Stormblood. There will be photos of my character, the Girl in the Pink Dress, as I progress through the story. There may also be videos. This is where I intend to start, but it won’t be the only thing I’m doing on this blog. I intend to be talking about and playing other games as well along the way, playing with friends, making videos with one of them, and just generally making this blog a gaming experience from my point of view. On top of that I’ll also be talking about movies, television, and – as the home page says – anything else that takes my fancy. I may even talk about weight-loss and food, since they’re both major things in my life right now.
So, this is my new blog, this is my more public experience – whereas I’ll keep my private blog for rants and talking about my life – and this is “The Girl in the Pink Dress”. Shall we see where it goes from here?