Free Trial & Tutorials

[Davemetalhead]

I can see there's a free trial available which I'll probably d/l and have a go at, but are there tutorials in the game? I've never played a Final Fantasy game (well, unless you count 10 minutes of FF 7 back in the late 90s) so I have no experience of the world, the settings, the lore or characters.

If there are tutorials do they do a good job of explaining the different terms used? Things like a linkshell (I think it's called), the different classes, crafting etc? Or is there an external resource that would explain these in plain English?

[Thyranne]

Hi, this is not a free trial, it's a free login "weekend". It means that you can play as long as you have bought the game (like a WoW Battlechest), even without a subscription.

but are there tutorials in the game?

Yes, the game is very friendly to new players.

I've never played a Final Fantasy game (well, unless you count 10 minutes of FF 7 back in the late 90s) so I have no experience of the world, the settings, the lore or characters.

All Final Fantasy games are different worlds, stories, characters, settings,.... but there are a lot of references to previous games (character names, places, music,...).

If there are tutorials do they do a good job of explaining the different terms used? Things like a linkshell (I think it's called), the different classes, crafting etc?

Yes they do.

Or is there an external resource that would explain these in plain English?

Yes there are. You can use this forum or Reddit.

[Xilurm]

FFXIV is almost exactly like WoW concerning gameplay. So you won't have any trouble starting or getting used to stuff.

[Thyranne]

FFXIV is almost exactly like WoW concerning gameplay. So you won't have any trouble starting or getting used to stuff.

I'll disagree with one thing: combat is extremly slow at lower levels. At around level 30 (depending on your class) things get a lot better.

[Davemetalhead]

Hi, this is not a free trial, it's a free login "weekend". It means that you can play as long as you have bought the game (like a WoW Battlechest), even without a subscription.

So this - http://www.ffxiv-freetrial.com/en/ is not a free trial? It says it's a 14 day free trial with a restriction to level 20.

[Thyranne]

So this - http://www.ffxiv-freetrial.com/en/ is not a free trial? It says it's a 14 day free trial with a restriction to level 20.

I didn't know about this site hehe.

I thought you were talking about the free login weekend so my bad.

[Davemetalhead]

No worries :-)

A quick question about instances/dungeons (are they instances?) What kind of time commitment do they take? Vanilla WoW (hour plus for many) or Pandaria WoW (20 - 30 minutes at a steady pace)?

[Thyranne]

No worries :-)

A quick question about instances/dungeons (are they instances?) What kind of time commitment do they take? Vanilla WoW (hour plus for many) or Pandaria WoW (20 - 30 minutes at a steady pace)?

Yes they are instances. They are pretty easy, the only start to get some mechanics that can wipe your group at Haukke Manor (level 28). Leveling dungeons take between 20-30 minutes, sometimes 35 or 40 if your group is bad or if you are running Aurum Vale (level 47) or Dzemael Darkhold (level 44), these 2 dungeons will normally take 40-45 minutes in Duty Finder (LFD).

[Cyclone Jack]

There are also Trials, which are single fight encounters (usually just a boss fight), and Guildhests, which are instanced scenarios, which seem to be more like training for dungeons (these can be somewhat fun, but are fairly easy until you get into the L40+ hests). Both of these types of content are fairly quick, though the Hard and EX Trials can take ~20 mins.

As someone who enjoys dungeons, but dislikes raids, I find the dungeons in FFXIV to be quite good (though even the raids in FFXIV aren't too bad). There is a good variety of encounter design, and if there is a dungeon you particularly like, you can run it whenever you like, as your level will be scaled to that of the dungeon (something more games should do). My only complaint is that all of the dungeons are 20-40 mins, and I would have liked to have seen at least one really long dungeon in the game. Maybe not BRD length, but I'd love to see a 90-120 min dungeon with 6 main bosses and 2-4 optional.

[Davemetalhead]

Thanks for the info folks.

D/l the trial last night but only got to play around 30 mins or so. First impressions aren't that positive, but I know not to judge a book by it's cover, or an MMO before even reaching level 2!

[blackpink]

Free trials are never a good indication of an mmo. Might as well just buy the game on pc. It's cheap, you get free month, and no level restrictions.

[Cyclone Jack]

FFXIV free trial is quite nonrestrictive.

I was able to do just about everything but manually group with players (you can still auto-group via Duty Finder to run instances). You can't send/receive Tells or join FCs, which cuts down on the spam, which also, in some ways, makes the trial better than the full game.

[Dasffion]

FFXIV free trial is quite nonrestrictive.

I was able to do just about everything but manually group with players (you can still auto-group via Duty Finder to run instances). You can't send/receive Tells or join FCs, which cuts down on the spam, which also, in some ways, makes the trial better than the full game.

Unfortunately, you can still receive tells. That was my only real complaint with FFXIV was the amount of gold spam I was getting.

[Cyclone Jack]

Unfortunately, you can still receive tells. That was my only real complaint with FFXIV was the amount of gold spam I was getting.

Really? I don't remember getting any tells when I was on the trial account. Which is why I assumed that inbound tells were disabled. If I am wrong, then I am wrong.

[Dasffion]

Really? I don't remember getting any tells when I was on the trial account. Which is why I assumed that inbound tells were disabled. If I am wrong, then I am wrong.

Perhaps they've changed it since you did the trial, I was on Trial until last week though and I was definitely getting gold spam.

[Davemetalhead]

You can receive tells it seems - I got one from a gold seller. At least I assume it was a tell - it was in pink and I got a sound notification when it appeared.

[Graeham]

FFXIV is almost exactly like WoW concerning gameplay. So you won't have any trouble starting or getting used to stuff.

I'd say it's smoother in many ways. One's mileage may vary (some people find the 2.5 second cooldown on abilities offputting) but personally I just love how when I activate an ability my character automatically faces an opponent to strike at them without the need for me to jump around like a demented rabbit as I would in other MMO's.

Dungeons, raids and trials are also set up in a very efficient manner so there's a constant flow of players seeking to do both high and low level content.

[Davemetalhead]

I may be missing something obvious here, but is there a way to delete a character? Being on a trial I can only create one character per realm, and only two realms appear to be unlocked. I'd like to get a feel for the different races, sexes and classes, 'cos at the moment the female human thaumaturge isn't doing anything for me.

[Grym]

I'd say it's smoother in many ways. One's mileage may vary (some people find the 2.5 second cooldown on abilities offputting) but personally I just love how when I activate an ability my character automatically faces an opponent to strike at them without the need for me to jump around like a demented rabbit as I would in other MMO's.

I actually hate that, luckily you can turn it off.

I like side stepping a lot, and making it so your character change their facing direction will change your course of movement which I hate.

[Remilia]

I actually hate that, luckily you can turn it off.

I like side stepping a lot, and making it so your character change their facing direction will change your course of movement which I hate.

Legacy movement! Default for controllers I think.

I may be missing something obvious here, but is there a way to delete a character? Being on a trial I can only create one character per realm, and only two realms appear to be unlocked. I'd like to get a feel for the different races, sexes and classes, 'cos at the moment the female human thaumaturge isn't doing anything for me.

There should be. I don't know if it's a trial thing but I remember there being one?