Final Fantasy XIV

Now that exams are finally over and winter break is underway, what better way to kick back and relax than to play massively multiplayer online role-playing games? Everyone is familiar with the usual suspects: World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Maplestory, etc. However, something new has emerged as a serious contender.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a reboot of the original MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV, that bombed. The game itself is pretty basic in itself. It has a variety of races and classes to be, as well as many dungeons and areas to conquer. What keeps the game so exciting? It’s the fact that you can master every class while just using one character.

If you start off as a thaumaturge which is essentially just an offensive magician, you don’t have to stay that way throughout the game. After you hit level 15 and complete certain quests, you’re able to switch classes, so if you wanted to, you could become a lancer. Exciting! I personally love being able to cross my skills between conjurer (a defensive magician) and thaumaturge, so I can heal while dealing massive damage.

In addition to this exciting class system, one had to remember that this is a game from the Final Fantasy franchise. Because of this, the plot is phenomenal. The game has a set of quests, which aren’t mandatory, one has to do to find out about the world and to get certain items. (Nobody wants to miss out on a Chocobo mount, after all!) The cutscenes are all skippable as well, so you don’t have to suffer if you don’t care about the story. The game also has recurring characters from the previous games, such as Chocobos, Carbuncles, Ifrit, Bahamut, Moogles and even a tiny cameo from the ever-loved Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII (and XIII-2 and Lightning Returns. We all love lightning so much, don’t we?)

The game is playable on PC as well as PS3 (and PS4 soon), so you can play with friends that are on different systems as you. This was a game changer for me because many of my friends have PS3s but don’t have computers that can handle games like this.

The downside to Final Fantasy XIV? It’s a monthly, subscription based game. It’s $30 a month, though it does periodically go on sale. (I got mine on Black Friday for $15.) On the other hand, all you have to do is stop paying during the school year and it won’t distract you from your studies because you won’t be able to play!