An MMO that shines bright in many different aspects. Long detailed review!
This is my first Final Fantasy series that I have played, and I have to say, it got me hooked right as I started playing. Even though the launch had log-in problems (which have been totally fixed now), the game itself has little-to-no bugs. The only bug I have experienced is when I was doing an instance and a monster got stuck and wouldn't move. It led to the boss being triggered, but it didn't so we had to start all over. Other than that, I have yet to experience something broken. In other words, the game is really polished and smooth.
Lets start off with the beginning. The Character Creation is decent. It lets you chose your height, hair, hair-color, nose, eyes and eye-brows. You will not have the choice of modifying your features using numbers/sliders. It will give you preset structures which you can apply to your character. There are 5 races that come in Male and Female: Elezen(Elves), Hyur(Humans), Lalafell(Childlike, grown up yet short as hell midgets), Miqo'te (Half cat, half human), and Roegadyn(HUGE ass dudes/chicks). Next you chose your God, which there are 12 of and they give you different types of stats.Your character will also have a first and last name, both of which have to be filled out (Names have to be unique, and can get taken by someone in your server).
In the beginning there will be a long cutscene which you can't skip, so be ready for that, it can get annoying if you have already seen it, but its just something you have to go through. And right as you enter, you will start your main story quest which will mostly guide you to the right zones. You will also have side quests which will grant you the majority of the XP you gain throughout your journey to level 50 (Current Cap).
All the classes are balanced and serve different roles. For example: Lancer, pugilist, arcanist, and archers are all DPS. Marauders, and Gladiators being the tanks. Conjurers being the healers. And all these classes can be upgraded to a specific job. I am currently a Monk, which is derived from the Pugilist class. It is acquired once you hit level 30 on your main class, and then level 15 on a secondary class (Lancer for me). This job grants you access to new spells which can be unlocked by doing job quests.
As for questing, it depends. There are a lot of kill this and gather that, or talk to that person and deliver that type quests. However, I had the most fun in my class quests simply because there was a great twist in the ending. You will find yourself out of quests at certain moments. This is when its a good time to find a zone and find a party and start doing FATEs. These FATEs grant you XP, Gil(Currency), and if you are in a Grand Company they will grant you Seals which can be used to buy promotions in the Company or Company armor/weapons which is pretty good. My favorite thing is getting in a party and doing FATEs. Its non-stop fun, and very rewarding when you see that Gold Badge with a good amount of Exp. granted to you.
You will also unlock Levemetes, which are like Dailies but they grant you XP mostly. You have to go to your journal and Initiate those once you have accepted them, in order to start them. Next you will have Guildleves, which require you to search for 4 people through the Duty finder. If you use the duty finder, it will search for 2 DPS, 1 Tank, and 1 Healer. If you are DPS, GL waiting for long ass queues because there is a shitload of you and others who are looking for that duty. If you're a tank or healer, than luck is on your side, it will take you the least amount of time to engage in that duty. In guildleves, the first time you complete it, you will get a BIG, and by BIG I mean BBIIGG amount of XP and Gil(gold) bonus. And if your team does it without dying, then you will get an even extra bonus, so keep that in mind if you do one.
As for combat, it is very engaging depending on the class you play. I have played lancer, and you will be mainly using 4 spells early on. 2 for your main source of damage, and 1 for a slow, and the other for a stun. However, on a Pugilist, which deals with Bare-hand combat, you will be using Fist Weapons to fight. There are a lot of things you have to look out for. One, you have tons of damage abilities. Some that require you to be behind the target, 1 being the first ability you unlock which will guaranteed Crit if used from behind the target. Some which require you to be on the side of the Foe (Flank) to get maximum damage output. This sort of combat keeps you moving. Abilities also have combos/chains, as for my Pugilist, I have three different forms: Raptor form, Coeurl form, and Opo-Opo form. Spells change your form, and other spells can only be used in specific forms, and this leads to you using your spells in a specific order. All-in-all the combat is very engaging and keeps you on your feet, especially for bosses.
Now, for loot, it is acquired either by Crafting, buying off the Market Board(Ah), doing quests, or simply by looting it from chests in Dungeons/Instances. It will NOT drop off of monsters at all so you don't have to worry about shitty white loot. Monsters that you kill will mostly drop Mats that can be used for crafting, cooking, or other things of that sort. Loot will have different stats such as Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Intelligence, Mind, or Piety. These stats play different roles. Strength is for physical damage for Pugilists, Lancers, and such. Intelligence is for Mages, like other MMOs. Vitality is for Health Points which is great for Tanks. At certain levels, items will have the same name, for example a White(Common) Toadskin Belt can be bought from the Market Board. However, a Green(Rare), or a Purple(Rarer) Toadskin Belt will be acquired through Instances. It will grant you higher Stats compared to the White version of it.
Inventory: This is my favorite game when it comes to inventory. This game does it right. You will have 4(5X5) inventory slots for normal materials, such as potions, food, mats, and what not. 1 inventory slot for Key items, which are used in quests. The items that cannot be Sold and are Quest Bound. And a WHOLE SEPARATE inventory for JUST your Armor, Weapons, and Trinkets. For example, you will have a 5X5 inventory for your weapons. A 5x5 inventory for your Gloves, a 5X5 inventory for your Chest Piece. You get what I'm trying to say. Basically a 5X5 inventory for all the separate gear slots. This in my opinion is the best way to handle inventory rather than having to hunt for bags that cost a shit ton of money or are a pain in the ass to find.
Traveling: Traveling in this game is optional, there are SOOOO many ways of traveling, so NO one has any reason to whine about how long it takes to get from one place to another. The main source of travel will be walking (OBVIOUSLY), BUT all races/classes/characters can use "Sprint" which they get at level 1, and it gives you a great Movement Speed bonus depending on how much TP (A resource EVERY race/class has) you have. There are also Aetherytes which are Giant ass Crystals in every major town/camp which if you click on for the first time, you will familiarize it and you can teleport to it from anywhere by paying Gil(Gold). You can also make an Aetheryte your home and when you use your spell "Return" which every class has access to and is free, you will return to that Aetheryte. Camps will also have Chocobo transporters, which when you discover a new town, and talk to a chocobo porters, you will unlock that waypoint, and you will be able to ride a chocobo from point A to point B in the same Zone! There are also flying ships that you will gain access to pretty early on that will take you to new Cities if you wish, for a fee! Now for mounts, this game has 7 mounts:
1) Ahriman: After purchasing 90 days of subscription, you will unlock this Floating Eyeball with Wings, mount.
2)Coeurl: A Tiger with a long ass pony-tail looking mustache, that floats and is longer than his whole body measured horizontally. This is only for Collector's Edition players.
3)Company Chocobo: An ostrich-like, but cuter, mount. This is the main mount which is acquired at level 20-24 ish. It is a part of the main story-line quest, and you acquire it when you join a Grand-Company, and acquire enough seals for a License of Assurance. With which you can buy this Chocobo.
4)Goobbue: If a huge ass toad existed, and he could stand up 35 feet tall, then this is it. This mount can only be accessed by 1.0 players. I have YET to see one. So IDK many details about it.
5)Legacy Chocobo: A cooler chocobo for Legacy Players.
6)Magitech Armor: Imagine a giant ass Robotic Black Chocobo, and you have this mount. It is the coolest looking in my opinion, and is acquired when you finish the main story-line.
7)Unicorn: What else do you want to know, its a god damn unicorn. This is only acquired by Conjurers(Healers). Which I think is great because it gives some people a reason to play healers, so that way there isn't a lack of them. Great planning by Square Enix.
That wraps it up for mounts and transportation, and keep in mind that all mounts are the same speed, they just look different.
As in end-game, I have yet to get there, and I will update my review once I get there. There are also other things such as crafting, fishing*, and in patch 2.1 there will be Housing, PvP, and new Primals(The main bad bosses).So far I highly recommend this game to you. I have spent around 80 hours in this game so far, and am still entertained.
EDIT: End-Game Review:
Once you reach level 50, you will unlock various different dungeons/instance (What ever you want to call them). The two most popular ones that you will come across with be Amdapor Keep (AK), and Castrum Meridianum (CM). I will shortly explain why these two are the most popular. Currently endgame has different stages of armor. Artifact armor which you can unlock at level 45 and consists of Boots, helm, legs, and gloves. And later on at 50 you do a quest to unlock your artifact chest piece. Now the Artifact Gear(AF) is usually entry level end-game dungeon armor. If you are doing AK or CM, this armor will suffice. What people usually do is they farm AK because armor that drops in there is 1 stage higher than Artifact Armor. AK and CM also drop Tomes, which can be used to buy Darklight Gear(Tomes of Philosophy). Tomes of Philosophy can buy you Darklight Gear which is 2 Stages above your basic Artifact gear. These tomes of philosophy drop in both AK (80 tomes per finished run) and CM(100 per finished run). CM is around 15~ mins faster than AK, and you might wonder why the hell would you waste your time at AK. Heres the catch, AK also drops Tomes of (Mythology), which can be used to buy Artifact +1 gear. AF+1 gear is 3 steps above normal gear. But tomes of mythology are limited to 300 per week and reset early Monday (PDT). What people usually do is they farm AK, get max Mythology Tomes, which should be 6 Full runs, because 50 drop per full run. This should net you 300 tomes of mythology and 480 philo tomes because 6 X 80 = 480. Not only that, while you are running AK, you might find upgrades that can replace your Artifact gear. Once you MAX out on mytho tomes, you would basically run CM. After you have full Darklight gear, you can start doing Primal Hard Mode runs. Once you finish that, you can basically start doing The Binding Coil of Bahamut which is the only Raiding Instance available ATM. This thing has THE BEST armor in game currently which you can ever have in your everlong life ever. That is at the moment, this might not apply when Squeenix releases new content. The coil is not recommended at all for people unless they have atleast the majority of their body covered in Darklight Gear.
These two dungeons are just that, dungeons, don't expect to be on your toes with excitement and tears of joy, because you will feel a little tired of it after a while. But worry not, you can level up your crafting class, or do a lot of things while you are queued up and reserving an instance. Which again, I cry in sorrow and fill a bucket of tears for you if you are a DPS. Hardest part of the instance is getting in, but once you get in, then you'll just slide right through it unless you get someone who cant move out of an ability that Highlights the Area of Effect for like 3 seconds before it goes off. Which is plenty of time to move out of.
Primal HM Runs:
There are currently 3 HM primals you can fight, and they go in this order. Ifrit, Garuda, Titan. These guys are know for dropping blue weapons which are better what you would be wearing at 50 if you just hit 50. Keep in mind that these are called 'Trials' in the Duty Finder, which I explained above. And you would have to do these HM Primal runs to get your Relic weapon, which is one of the best, if not the best if you can Upgrade the Relic weapon to Relic +1. And let me tell you, you better be on top of your game with your reaction time because 1 Primal ability will K.O your ass if its the right one. This makes it lots of fun for me Being a Monk because I am close combat based, and dodging just adds a whole new element of fun to the game. But if you can dodge spells, it pretty damn easy to be honest. I personally think they should make Boss combat harder.
Armor progression at 50.
Artifact, AK gear, Darklight, AF+1, Gear from Bahamut's coil.
I shall release more info once I get to Bahamut's coil. ATM I am still farming AK with a couple of Darklight pieces on me!
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The Review-er above me states that since he can't get a mount the game is over. How lame, the last thing you need is a mount to travel. You sprint for the same speed as a mount, but sprint has a 5 second cooldown. You have the return spell, you have TP, you can rent a chocobo. If you can't do instances to acquire said item, then maybe MMOs aren't for you bud!