Tag: Quick Info

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Videogames JRPG Collection

How to get back into FFXIV after a break

Sounds like it would be tricky, right? Final Fantasy XIV is a big, complex, multiplayer game. Since you last played, they might have added an expansion with 100+ hours of new content. They might have added two or three expansions! Where do you even start. 

Actually, playing FFXIV after a break is easy. There are so many options to help you to get back into the flow of things. 

  • Training dummies
  • Low-level duties
  • Continuing the story
  • Asking for help

Let’s explain these in a bit more detail, with images.

Smack around a striking dummy

There is a reason these things are dotted around cities. Everyone needs to brush up on their rotations every now and again. Just be aware that the more advanced areas have higher-level training dummies, and you might end up missing attacks against those. There’s no other risk from them, but if in doubt return to La Noscea, Thanalan, or The Shroud to find an unintimidating, Lvl 1 wooden sparring partner.

A player about to hit a striking dummy in a free company house, Final Fantasy XIV
Image from Steam Community (link to user)

Play some familiar, easier duties

You could even start with the easiest dungeons (Sastasha, The Tam-Tara Deepcroft) and trials (Ifrit in The Bowl of Embers, Titan in The Navel) and work your way up. Your level will be scaled down to something appropriate to the duty, but if you’ve played before these activities will still be a breeze, even if you don’t remember all the mechanics. After you’ve done a few, you’ll definitely be in the flow again.

Party completing the Tam-Tara Deepcroft duty in Final Fantasy XIV
Image from Steam Community (link to user)

Just a quick reminder, you find duties with the duty finder:

The duty finder window in Final Fantasy XIV
Image from Steam Community (link to user)

Join a group or ask a stranger

FFXIV is notoriously friendly as MMOs go. There are lots of methods of connecting with other players. Shouting for help in public is one way to go (use the command /shout in the chat box and nearby players will hear you) but don’t be too discouraged if you don’t get a response. Instead, try joining a friendly linkshell or a free company. Use the official Final Fantasy XIV community finder and find some new gaming friends to give you a confidence boost.

A group of friends sitting around a bench in Final Fantasy XIV
Image from Steam Community (link to user)

Continue with the story

However long you have been absent from the Eorzea, you will always be greeted by a big main quest indicator at the top left of your screen (unless you’ve changed your UI) to tell you what you need to do to continue the story. Do a few of these quests to get your hotkey fingers warmed up.

A cutscene with Garduda flying above players, Final Fantasy XIV
Image from Steam Community (link to user)

This is what you’re looking for:

The Current Main Scenario Quest indicator in Final Fantasy XIV

Get on with it!

It’s all about building up momentum. Once you’ve done a bit of exploring, practiced with your keyboard, and crossed paths with a few other adventures, you’ll feel like you never left. 

All you need is the confidence to hit Play!

Online resources

Official guides:
https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/playguide/
https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/jobguide/battle/

Wikis (player created):
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/FF14_Wiki
https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Main_Page

Patch notes:
https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/special/patchnote_log/

How to get into other Final Fantasy games

If you’re already in love with XIV, maybe the other games in the series will also delight you. But if getting into XIV, which is only one game, is hard, where do you even start when it comes to the entire series?! We’ve written a guide to help with that exact question: how to start the Final Fantasy series.

Categories
JRPG Collection

Persona 3 Screenshots

This is a collection of 50 high-quality, (hopefully) exciting screenshots from the Playstation 2 game Persona 3 FES.

They were taken in PCSX2.

This is not a comprehensive tour of Persona 3, but it does feature a variety of areas including some from late in the game.

Feel free to use these screenshots on your own website or in your own project. If you do, we would greatly appreciate a link back to Great Adventures Review.

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Movies Marvel Collection

MCU Phase 4 Complete List (Combined Series, Films and Specials)

In Phase 4 of the MCU, for the first time, Marvel Studios made television series (streamed on Disney+) that were tied to the stories of the films as much as the films had been with each other. They set up storylines for the movies and even shared actors.

Most lists of Marvel Cinematic Universe stories are broken into separate lists for the cinematic releases, Disney+ series, and the special short films. I think it is more useful to see the full combined list arranged only in order of release date. This shows us the order that dedicated fans will have watched all of the stories of Phase 4, and potentially the order Marvel Studios intended them to be watched.

This also helps give a different perspective on the phase than seeing only a list of movies. For example, the first movie in the phase, Black Widow, does not reveal anything about the broader storyline of the universe. However, the first Disney+ series of the phase, WandaVision, did.

The last story in the list, Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special, is described by the director James Gunn as “the epilogue of Phase 4”. Maybe you will agree that it does a better job of this than the last film in the phase, Wakanda Forever.

Some have argued that Phase 4 was weaker than the previous three phases, but this argument is always based on the cinema releases. When all the stories are considered, you could come to a different conclusion.

READ NEXT: Best Videogame Adaptations on Netflix
Categories
Videogames

Prioritising Games

Fun fact: each of us is going to die before we get to play all the games that we want to! Here’s my way of dealing with that:

People talk about their “backlog” of 20,000 games and sometimes ask the internet the best way to “get through” them all.

Wait, what?

The sad fact is, you’ll never finish your backlog. Even if it only had three games on it, just while (and as a result of) playing these three you’ll discover new games that excite you and you just need to add to the list. And so on.

I hate the idea of a backlog and have always advised against thinking about games that way. However, I have started prioritising games.

Games I haven’t played that I think about regularly, or games that I might regret never getting around to, they go at the top of my list. When I’m choosing what to play next, I’ll ask myself which of those “High Priority” games I’m most excited to play. I have a chronological preference, so I tend to play an older game before a newer one, but I won’t let age supercede priority or excitement.

Yes, I have a spreadsheet.

I’ll never finish the whole list, but I feel satisfied that I’ll at least get to the games that feel most important to me because I’ve put them in order.

After all, if I was hit by a truck tomorrow, I would hate my last thought to be “But I never played Valkyria Chroni—” 💀