“MMORPGs: Revisiting An Old Flame”

“Hello darkness, my old friend…”

-Simon & Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence

I’m ready to make my public confession. I swore off MMOs. For years. I promised I would never spend real money on glam gear again. I promised I would never become addicted to daily grinds for shiny bits again. I promised I would never run a guild again, not since that one guy told me he’d kill himself if I didn’t let him back into the guild after I kicked him for harassing and stalking other members. More on that story on the DC Universe Online MAGE CAST podcast episode.

But here I am. I stand before you this day a mage renewed. I told myself if I ever played an MMO again, it would be Final Fantasy XIV, for obvious reasons. Well… now I’m playing it, ok?

Some of the old habits came back, like making millions of alts. Alright so it’s much less than millions but it’s still somewhere between myriad and sundry. I’ve got Well-red Mage the Thaumaturge, Lady Urbosa the Baby Balthier the Archer, Schala Zeal- the Summoner, and Chief Ayla the Monk, and I was messing around with creating characters for Nina from the Breath of Fire series and the Black Rabbit of Inle from Watership Down. Yeah, I have a lot on my plate, but I’m really only focusing on two or three characters at a time.

You can tell that I like to make what I call “iconic” characters, alts based on characters from other games, books, movies, and IPs. My old guild in DC Universe Online was led by a Gentleman Ghost and only allowed iconic DC villains in. Maybe someday I’ll make a Free Company in FFXIV for iconic characters, maybe open to any iconic character from any series or franchise, and not just Final Fantasy.

When you are the leading man but also a potato.

Maybe. I’m really trying to prevent myself from getting wholly sucked in. I’ve got plenty of other things to attend to!

For now, though, I’m really enjoying the game. It’s keeping me connected with my brother long distance and we play together as Schala and Magus. I love the quality of life features and system redundancies that make it easier to learn and to play. The story is something I’m liking so far with the emphasis on the primals (classic FF summons/espers/eidolons). I’m not too keen on so much teleporting and the vast distances to cross to deliver items, but nearly everything else is fun.

I was thinking yesterday how I would rank this Final Fantasy on my favorites list. I’m not ranking games I haven’t played in years like Game Boy FF’s (in title) or Tactics Advance. This is subject to change but in order of most favorite to least (and yes, this is not a “best” list which would look very different and could be debated; which games are my personal favorite is not debatable though, except by me hahaha):

• Final Fantasy VI
• Final Fantasy Tactics
• Final Fantasy IX
• Final Fantasy VII
• Final Fantasy X
• Final Fantasy XIV
• Final Fantasy IV
• Final Fantasy XII
• Final Fantasy VIII
• Final Fantasy X-2
• Final Fantasy V
• Final Fantasy XIII
• Final Fantasy XIII-2
• Final Fantasy
• Final Fantasy XV
• Final Fantasy II

6th place ain’t too bad! Maybe it’ll continue to grow on me. I just hope it grows in affection and not addiction. And if you are playing and want to meet up with me, just let me know! Hey, we should make Chrono Trigger characters hahaha!

Special shout out to @CaptFriggan, @cphonx, and the Iron Mage (character: Frog Squash) who have been super generous and super helpful and fun to meet up with in the game! Here is a video that @cphonx managed to capture of a dungeon we played together!

Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage, Mage Cast, or Story Mode.