Towards the beginning of Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker, an unnamed soldier hands a man from the opposing side a coffee-filled mug. After dealing with countless hardships throughout the story, filled with destruction and death, the soldier tells the man, “It’s the little things that make life worth living, don’t you think so?” This single statement was enough to bring me to tears. Final Fantasy 14 is one of those little things in my life that has brought so much joy and comfort in the past two years of hardships around the world.
Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker review
- Developer: Square Enix
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Platform: Played on PC
- Availability: Out now on PC, PS4 and PS5 – although sales have been temporarily suspended
I started my journey in Final Fantasy 14 at the beginning of the pandemic, not unlike many other players in the MMORPG. A good friend of mine over in England had suggested I play, seeing that I have been a huge fan of other popular RPGs such as Dragon Age, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Final Fantasy 7. Since then, Final Fantasy 14 has fast become my favorite game to play, and having just finished Endwalker, I can honestly say that Final Fantasy 14 has one of the best storylines I have ever witnessed in a video game.
While there has been some trouble with queue times since Endwalker has come out, it hasn’t been too much of a hassle for me over on the Crystal Data Center. Final Fantasy 14 has seen a massive rise in popularity since July this year due to many popular streamers promoting it on both Twitch and YouTube. The highest queue I had seen was when early access first dropped for Endwalker, which was around 5,000 for my data center. Despite this, I have found that playing the game in the early morning or later part of the evening has much smaller queue times of around 50-100 max.
It’s perfectly understandable to know why so many people want to play FF14: it’s simply that good. The third expansion, Shadowbringers, is certainly a testament to powerful storytelling. While I will refrain from giving out any spoilers, Shadowbringers’ story was enough to bring me to tears in the end (I will never get over the “remember us” quote). Heavensward and Stormblood both had their moments, but for me it was Shadowbringers that truly made me love and appreciate the game.