Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.5 - Growing Light Signals the Beginning of the End

Once I play through this patch I'll be taking a decent break from FF14 until the rumoured FF16 Collab comes out. To this day Heavenward and Shadowbringers are my favourite expansions.
I can't see Dawntrail topping those.

Endwalker for me was only a little better than Stormblood.

I left just as the first progression was coming out. It’d been about a year, starting the trial on PS3 before finding a spot with the PS4 version. The controller difference was game changing. The center pad really helped!

It’s just so much content.

Umm... yes, i am up to date. But, the story ended when the expansion launched.
The patch cycle is telling let's say a side story? That side story will come to some sort of finale now, but it will probably not conclude completely with the patch.
Anyways i won't be resubbing now. Will wait until dawtrail is close to launching.

FFXVI had a bad impact on FFXIV's content pace and this expansion is about one year late.
Hopefully they won't ask YoshiP to make another mainline game in parallel.

FF14 is a game I have always wanted to play but never found the time.

I love MMOs. I played World of Warcraft from launch to Mists of Pandaria and I still play Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online.

With ESO and GW2, I can leave for a while then jump back in with their expansions and feel like I’m not left behind. WoW was great but it was such a time investment, I was raiding and just couldn’t keep up after having kids so I quit it cold turkey. I feel FF14 could be the same, not because of the gear grind but the story grind.

Like I said, I’ve always wanted to play this, just haven’t felt I can invest the time.

Anyone got experience on whether I could just enjoy it gradually over time or is it that massive as the comments above suggest?

Ugh, I so much want to play this again but it just feels too overwhelming in combination with my backlog. I left somewhere at the start of the first expansion (and have bought expansions 2-4 as well) but can’t get a grasp on how long in total this will take me. Probably years, non stop?

I did LOVE it though, so I’m still in doubt.

@Kienda it is massive, buuuuuuuut you could slowly play through the free trial which covers a massive chunk of content and doesn't have much in the way of restrictions. One of the biggest bits of advice I can give someone is to play it at your own pace, don't feel like you have to rush through anything or that you have to do everything.

@Kienda The game is massive, but you can enjoy it at your own pace especially if you don't do end game raiding. There is a lot of story content in the game and most of it can be done solo with NPC parties. The advantage of that is that you can easily take a break in the middle of a dungeon when real life calls without feeling bad for your party members. I took several long breaks in between playing and can always easily pick it up again mostly because of those npc parties.
The whole Main Story Quest is kinda large though, If you want to finish it entirely it will probably take you a few 100 hours to get through all expansions.
Personally I am playing the game on and off. When i am waiting for new games to release or when i feel like progressing the story or just level some new characters. It is perfectly suited for the casual playstyle.
You can always try out the free trial and see how that goes when you are interested in it.

I'm up to date and I am ready to feed Zero some more delicious food! I'm willing to bet that Ryne and Gaia adopt her and give her some Coffee Biscuits!

Lord I love this game... the story just feels so epic... an MMO like no other.

@Kienda This game is indeed massive, but its like no other.

If you are starting for the first time, you can take advantage of the free trial that lets you play from level 1-70, experiencing the launch game, and 2 expansions worth of story. Thats a gargantuan amount of story.

Unlike most MMOs, this one forces you to play the story linearly. There is where the grind can come in. You cant just level up to the cap via some quick leveling scheme and then do the newest expansion content, you actually have to play the main story questline all the way through. It's a fantastic story, mind you. The last two expansions have been just fantastic storytelling.

Although the first release (realm reborn) is a bit rough, the story starting with Heavensward through Endwalker form IMO the best Final Fantasy story to date.

Anyways, given how much content there is in the "free trial" I would suggest just playing it that way. You can play it casually, you wont need to grind for gear ever. Only reason to grind for gear is if you want to do the current hard-mode end-game raids, and even then, only if you want the best gear.

@Tharsman @Mintie @Lavalera thanks for taking the time to reply.

I think I will wait until next year before I start my FF14 journey. But you’ve definitely convinced me to give it a go.