Story-telling isn’t new in MMORPGs, but it’s fair to say that Square Enix have almost perfected it.

As good as it is now, though, Final Fantasy XIV hasn’t always had an easy time of it. In the early days, it remained firmly in World of Warcraft’s shadow and the initial launch, prior to A Realm Reborn, was incredibly messy.

The turnaround the game has seen ever since, recently culminating in its finest expansion yet – Shadowbringers – is inspiring and amazing to watch. And now the game, unimaginably, finds itself as the leading MMO on the market and at the end of a narrative arc set in motion many years ago which many never thought would be complete.

Endwalker is an emotional ride, then. But that won’t be a surprise to any FFXIV player since they’ve embarked on something truly epic from accepting that very first quest. Lots of hours have been invested and the concluding arc doesn’t disappoint.

As with all other expansions, you need to have completed the quest-line building into it, which is several patches worth of content, and from there you’ve got around a 25-30 hour campaign (time heavily dependent) which, quite literally, takes you to the moon and back.

And that’s probably one of the most memorable things I took away from Endwalker once the credits rolled. I visited some truly unexpected places, encountering new, sometimes familiar faces. The range on offer might just be the most broad yet. But that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, Endwalker explores a catastrophic, world-ending threat, so the time for unity has never been more important.

That said, in case you haven’t followed the story to the letter before reading this, I’m going to avoid spoilers entirely throughout this piece, focusing more on what it is that makes Endwalker different, interesting, but sometimes a bit too stuffy.

Different, first. And it’s a change you’ll notice immediately. Characters can now follow you – sometimes in multiple numbers – as you run around the towns and go between quests. This is a neat little feature that pays homage to other Final Fantasy games, really giving off the feeling of being within a party.

The other little note on this is that sometimes you can find areas of interest where you can converse with the character to get their perspective on things, like unique insights on a town or an observation about the particular quest line you’re on.

Simiarly tied with its focus on AI, returning from Shadowbringers is the Trust system, where you can once again visit dungeons with non-human allies in case the queues are not in your favour or you’d rather work alone through the content at your own pace. Expanding upon it even, now Estinien can join the party in all their bad ass glory.

Sometimes it’s just convenient so you’re not waiting around, you can take a moment to step away if you need too, and, well, we’ve all been there, watching cutscenes for the first time and your group are halfway through a boss fight, wondering where you got to.

I think the other thing that really stood out to me is just how good Endwalker looks. Considering the age of the engine – this game was running on a PS3 – and now trying it out in 4K on a PS5, Final Fantasy XIV has never looked better. The environments are sharp, stunning at times, and blindingly beautiful. The scope and scale of them never disappoints, with some of them fast becoming the most iconic the franchise has ever seen. Radz-at-Han, for instance, is a real treat.

The characters are also well established, settled into their arcs and some of the lines and plot threads really are the most well written you’ve seen to date. More than a few times I shed a tear but also felt true intensity and tension in some of the high-stress situations. It’s impressive for a game that is slightly confined by some of the ways it has to tell story due to its age, yet it never truly feels as if it is.

Square have creatively built upon what’s there, carefully expanding some of the avenues to keep things feeling fresh. Character following is one method, another is more drawn out campaigns which are sometimes multi-tiered with a series of objectives you have to follow. One almost turns the game into an espionage thriller, bearing more than a passing resemblance to a Metal Gear Solid.

With that does come some frustrations, with some of the checkpoints a little too ambitious and the initial difficulty scaled a little too high. You can also feel a bit directionless at times if you’ve even clocked out for a moment watching the preceding cutscene.

The thing about Endwalker is that while it is summing up a long-term story and is the most important chapter in this epic adventure we’re being taken on, it made me realise how much I am ready for this particular story to be over. Personally, I found the mid-section to be quite bloated and some sections were overly drawn out. Some of this wasn’t helped with the caliber of quests being overly familiar and some cutscenes going on for seemingly forever.

While I couldn’t put Shadowbringers down and found myself enthralled almost every step of the way, I was definitely more detached and disengaged with parts of Endwalker. I think there’s two reasons for that, one because it’s all building up to a thrilling, epic conclusion and so the journey to that point definitely makes you feel a bit restless. But I also found Shadowbringers to be a refreshing change of pace, focusing on a new, mostly self-contained adventure, which really allowed some flexibility and newfound creativity.

I think parts of FFXIV have been a bit hamstrung by the long-term, ongoing arc, and following an expansion as strong as Shadowbringers was always going to expose that a little bit. But the way Endwalker leads you to its conclusion, I am incredibly excited to see what comes next for Final Fantasy XIV. The option is certainly there to head in a different direction and with the game’s popularity at an all time high, it would almost be a shame not to see more expansions in its future.

That’s not to say Endwalker is a bad expansion. Far from it, the dungeons offer some great challenges, there’s some interesting takes as you progress through them and the bosses require some fast-thinking and smart strategies to stay ahead. Plus the Raids are as astounding as you might expect for this stage of the game. I couldn’t believe how much was happening on screen at some points.

The Reaper class is also a joy to play. It’s powerful, reactive, fast-paced, and adds another layer of thinking to battle that differs itself from a Machinist or Marauder. If you’re looking to switch things up, this is as good a job as any that’s been added into the game and the quest-line is also quite an interesting one to work through, providing backstory and context for the job’s unique origins.

If you’ve dabbled with Final Fantasy XIV at any point, if you’ve been there since day one or have been encouraged by all the chatter about the game online, Endwalker is a must. It’s like working through 2/3rds of a story and deciding you don’t need to see the end. Let me assure you that you definitely do as there’s plenty of great moments, fun exchanges, and lots of cool content to sink your teeth into.

Shadowbringers was always going to be a tough act to follow and I don’t think Endwalker quite reaches the same lofty heights, but I am in awe of what’s been achieved with the game’s development over the last decade. It has defied expectations, showed staying power, built some of the most memorable characters and worlds in Final Fantasy history, and crafted an ambitious arc that has kept people’s attention across multiple years and expansions, bringing it to a satisfying conclusion.

If this is the end of Final Fantasy XIV, history will remember this as an MMORPG that changed the way we think about the genre forever. It made us care about a story and enjoy meeting its characters, rather than bury us in reams of lore and expect us to keep up. These are faces I will remember, it’s a journey I’ll fondly reminisce about, and that makes it difficult to go to any other MMORPG at this point which just doesn’t understand the value and importance of that.

Verdict

Endwalker is a thank you to the fans for their patience, passion and perseverance. Without question, it’s the defining moment of one of gaming’s greatest ever comeback stories, now somehow more popular than it’s ever been. Because of that, I truly hope we’ll see these faces again someday, taking on new stories and venturing to new places. 

Square Enix can be proud that this is the best Final Fantasy has been in many years and it sets the bar high for anything that follows.

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Pros

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Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is now available on PC and PlayStation

Code Kindly Provided by Square/Bastion