Final Fantasy XIV is a bit intimidating. The game has been out for years, and has undergone a full relaunch in 2013, and has grown exponentially though seemingly endless patches and expansions. There is an enormous amount of content in FFXIV, and as a new player, the idea of jumping in and starting at ground zero is daunting.
Indeed, most of the "beginner's guide" articles I've read suggested skipping the base game and paying for boosts that allow the player to jump ahead to the expansion content - and idea that has always bewildered me. When I get a game, I want to, you know, play the game. I thing I would be completely lost if I skipped 100 hours of a game and then tried to play with veterans in more difficult arenas. Part of the fun of the early part of MMORPGs is learning to "drive" your character, picking up how their skills work and fit together, how the world works, etc. Skipping all of that would make me wildly incompetent.
Luckily the folks at Square Enix in charge of Final Fantasy XIV seem to feel me, because they have opened up the base game and the first expansion to play completely for free right now, which adds up to hundreds of hours of gameplay. With the release of FFXIV's new patch (5.5), players can jump in and play a ton of FFXIV with very few barriers and little commitment outside of their time.
The big news right now for FFXIV's console players is the game's upgrade to PlayStation 5. Existing players on PS4 can upgrade to the PS5 version for free, with new players being able to hop right in and start on PS5 for free. The full PlayStation 5 version will be available for purchase at the end of the open beta period (though no date has been given for that beta ending, so go nuts while you can).
I hopped into FFXIV yesterday on PlayStation 5, having only spent a few hours with the game on PS4 in a previous free-play period. Take a look at the video above; the game looks stunningly good. The game is designed to be pretty welcoming to new players. Though there are a ton of mechanics and controls to pick up out of the gate, I still had a blast running around and completing noob quests and trying to get a feel for the game's inventory and combat systems. My time with the game left me in a weird place, where I'm trying not to let the insidious MMO hooks sink into me, but all I want to do is run away from work and go play more FFXIV. It's rather delicious.
If you are an existing player, I'm going to post the rest of the extensive changes made in Patch 5.5, which you can see by clicking the link below. But if you are a new player, or are just interested in seeing whether FFXIV resonates with you, I would definitely recommend downloading the game and giving it a shot.