ELSEWHERE

I thought it might be fun to document some of my adventures and picture-taking as I play through Final Fantasy 14!

I've been playing for -- actually, I'm not sure how long, but I'm what the game considers a "sprout," which is a new player, and I'm only just approaching finishing the game's first expansion (out of, currently, four). I've played mostly in spurts, where I'll hop on pretty religiously for a week or so and then get distracted by other things, and while I foresee that being my general modus I was recently adopted by @Dax Webster's Free Company, which has made it a lot more appealing to zip around in-game!

My character is a male Viera named Silas; he's a red mage main and X'rhun Tia's boyfriend because this is my magical bunny journey and I can do what I want. Right now I'm around level 56, so let's go!

Note that this is not a spoiler-free zone

Did a quick photoshoot last night with some of my jobs to kind of get things started. One of the key features of Final Fantasy 14 is the ability to change classes/jobs on the fly -- they level separately, but once you unlock one you essentially press a button and switch into that job's gear and abilities. It's a nice and low stress way to let you either do All the Things, None of the Things, or Only a Few Things. I fall under "Only a Few Things," so here are the jobs I currently use.

(I'm skipping Red Mage because I'll probably do a full post and better photoshoot involving that, and only going over my classes that are level 50 or higher. i.e. for instance I have a baby Machinist and also am secretly leveling Blue Mage, but they look like disasters because it's hard to have a strong aesthetic before level 50ish, imho.)

Paladin!

Paladin (originally Gladiator, since some jobs turn into other jobs) is my starter class and I still use it exclusively for MSQ stuff! I have a lot of tanxiety so I don't really play pally when I'm in duty roulette, because I don't know most of the instances very well and get nervous about it.

Bard!

I think this was the first DPS class I unlocked. You start as an Archer and later become a Bard, and I actually enjoy it quite a bit! In most video games I don't enjoy the archer/ranged DPS class a whole lot but being a Bard is pretty dynamic and you buff the party with your songs, which I like.

White Mage!

I actually love being a White Mage (originally Conjurer) -- I was researching which healer class I wanted to level, since as mentioned above I don't want to unlock or level All the Things so I'm a bit choosy about which ones I put time into. White Mage appeals to me because, I'll be honest, the aesthetic is cute and it's a pretty easy/straightforward healer class. Also look at the boots I got he looks like a magical girl I love him

And that's it so far! I also have some crafting/gatherer jobs but I'm working on leveling those and getting their outfits sorted right now, so that'll also be another post later on. I really like how the game doesn't pressure you to do things you don't want to do, or makes you feel like you'll miss out if you don't do X or Y. I have one healer class, one tank class, one main DPS class and a few to goof around with. It's nice!

lol speaking of secretly leveling Blue Mage I forgot I redid my glam plates/gear and accidentally looked like this for the duration of a cutscene

It occurs to me I'll be talking about storyline spoilers throughout this thread, so after this post I'll make an edit to the first one warning that since I don't want to hide or spoiler tag anything. So general warning that this is a space I will freely talk about spoilers as it relates to Final Fantasy 14!

Now that I've got that out of the way, GODDAMNIT this dumb game finally got me to feel a feeling. I've been, I will admit, stubbornly resistant to such because -- well, I'm only human, and I've found some of the game's representatives to be off-putting. There's a lot of hemming and hawing about the plot and the characters, and so far I don't care much about either of those things and I find it irritating to be told "just you wait!" because I think that's bad storytelling. I think the Scions are boring, I do not care about a single thing that happens in Ul'dah, the worldbuilding so far has been fairly painful -- at one point a major character gives you what is almost literally a PowerPoint presentation about how the afterlife works -- and I was genuinely infuriated the game expected you to sit for a thirty minute cutscene at the end of A Realm Reborn.

(To be clear, I am glad people enjoy the thing! I have found the way a few people enjoy it to be aggravating or condescending, but I'm glad people are enjoying the thing. Whether or not I like a JRPG varies a lot, and I wouldn't call it a genre I gravitate towards outright. So in a lot of ways this just Isn't For Me, even though I enjoy playing it. And that's fine!)

But Bestiefant. :(

I don't seek out spoilers for FF14, although I don't avoid them and accept the fact that a) I am playing a game that is many years old and has a fandom that, understandably, likes to talk about it and b) I don't care that much about the plot, so if I know a thing that happens, I'm not that worried about it. Somehow, despite that, I did not know that Haurchefant dies, and when he got dealt a killing blow after the Vault I genuinely went "oh no!" out loud. He was probably my favorite NPC up to this point; very earnest and gentle, very power of friendship. Idealistic, but willing to back up his idealism with action and setting an example for others.

RIP Bestiefant, I am going to use the power of friendship to beat the absolute goddamn tar out of Ser Zephirin

Chugging along through Heavensward! I actually hit a slight wall with it last night where I need to level my paladin a little bit more, so I may work on that this morning before I go run errands. My plan is to finish Heavensward and then take a breather to get all my classes at the same level, then go into the next expansion.

Also LORD I hate this trope:

I beat up a big whale and got a magic key and immediately had it taken from me by the villains who restrained me, gloated, and then fucked off. I know it's just the genre but,

Was practicing taking screenshots last night with controller hotkeys vs. keyboard. I prefer it but it'll be a bit clunky until I fully get used to it.

Have a paladin bun son!

tee-hee taint

Bruh these sidequests hit hard sometimes

I have some backlogged pictures to post I'll try to throw up here tomorrow! I did finish the main questline for Heavensward a few days ago and enjoyed it overall! It had a big satisfying conclusion and I really liked the implementation of the Knights of the Round summon from FF7 as a full fight. I might go into more thoughts on it at some point, I might not. It was good, though.

Now I'm in post-expansion mode, because I like to take a break in-between to get all my jobs up-to-speed and my quest log cleaned out. Current to-do list before I start progressing through post-Heavensward content:

1) power level Blue Mage to at least 50
2) level weaver/goldsmith in tandem, get them to 60 (I will probably pick up an additional crafting class once I'm all set to get into the next expansion)
2.5) o yeah and botanist/fisher, although fisher is kinda stuck until I get my gathering stuff higher so I can get the stupid fish I need for the next quest
3) after that probably get White Mage the rest of the way to 60 and then the rest of my DPS classes

I get what they were going for but god do I hate the way the goblins talk