~Sneak Peek Trailer for A Realm Reborn Review by DioDiablo A Realm Reborn (ARR) is the rebooted story of Final Fantasy 14 that Square Enix wanted us to experience, but only Yoshi P. could ever deliver on. Being the first story that all new players, or Sprouts, play through it's absolutely necessary to complete if you want to move onto "the good stuff". Once you get this far into the story of FF14 you'll have heard these common quips about ARR: "ARR TAKES TOO LONG""THE PACE FOR ARR IS TOO SLOW""IT GETS BETTER AT HEAVENSWARD""JUST USE A STORY SKIP. YOU'RE NOT MISSING MUCH ANYWAYS.""YOU CAN WATCH THE STORY IN THE NEVERENDING JOURNAL"What if I told you that the pace for A Realm Reborn was not slow, but perfect? What if I told you that the story wasn't even meant for you as the player to experience? What if I told you that the story for A Realm Reborn is meant for our Warrior of Light to experience from their perspective? You can take the blue pill and dismiss ARR to rush to "the good shit", or you can take the red pill and understand the journey that the Warrior of Light establishes during A Realm Reborn. The premise of A Realm Reborn is that we live in a world 5 years after the Calamity, a devastating conclusion of the Battle of Carteneau where the Company of Heros helped save Eorzea from complete obliteration. Though Eorzea was spared, most who fought in the battle did not survive the ordeal including most of the Company of Heros. Your character shows up to Eorzea seeking to join the adventurer's guild to build a legacy and have something to eat at the end of the day. This is where A Realm Reborn truly begins...with you (somewhat). A NEW ADVENTURER ARCDepending on what class you chose to start with you'll roll up in either Gridania, Ul'dah, or Limsa Lominsa as your starting city where your character does achieve their goal of joining the adventurer's guild. It is this first step the Adventurer takes that kicks off the first character arc of your character's journey. The story does a swell job emphasizing this by constantly including your character's name in the text dialogues of various NPCs. Your character is truly apart of the world as opposed to being a witness to what's going on around them. This small detail becomes more pronounced as the story for A Realm Reborn grows, but for now your character is a fresh new member of the adventurer's guild looking to make a name for themselves. I want to take a quick note to mention that this is where the feeling of the story "dragging" starts to set in. You're sent on various missions to help establish yourself as an adventurer so you can get a hold of better jobs. This is where the emphasis that this is your character's story also starts to set in. You just came to a new land and just started your new job. Of course things are going to feel slow and sluggish because you need to build up your rapport silly! No one just becomes the Warrior of Light overnight after all. Now during your missions you'll run into members of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn here and there due to their investigations and your missions sharing some strange clues into what's going on in Eorzea. Towards the beginning this doesn't really mean much because your character really doesn't know what's going on at a deeper level. The missions you continue to take down the line though does shed some light into strange activities that show signs of some kind of sinister ritual being prepped. One such mission will make this very clear when a creature of darkness attacks the group of scoundrels that have been keeping your adventurer log filled up to this point. After you slay the creature it drops a crystal that you pick up and decide to keep for untold reasons. This specific feat does not go unnoticed as your respective Grand Company leader does take notice of your actions and invites you to their banquet. A rightfully deserved reward after you just killed that big ugly, along with helping put a sting into some major issues your home city has been suffering with for what seems a while before you even showed up. This banquet is where your crystal also grabs the attention of said Grand Company leader and the representative Scion also present. This is where your character is revealed to be the sent by the Mother Crystal to help aid Eorzea in fighting off the forces that threaten it, and a Warrior of Light who fights with the resilience that the Heros who fell in the Calamity once did. The attending Scion then offers you an invitation to join their organization as your ability to use the Echo has sparked their interest from the few encounters you've had so far. This is where my argument that the story is not meant for the player, but your character brings itself to light. Your character is a recognized individual in Final Fantasy 14 that the inhabitants know and respect. Square Enix did a good job in separating story from player experience because it's truly a tale of the Warrior of Light, and not about flashy cutscenes and some epic battles. We are here for the journey of the Warrior of Light that our character has now been stablished into, and we have a long road ahead of us. This is exactly why the pacing of A Realm Reborn is not slow but absolutely perfect for unfolding the journey our Warrior of Light embarks on. A NEW SCION ARCWith the pace of the story addressed our Warrior of Light now joins the Scions of the Seventh Dawn due to their innate ability to use the Echo. Not because they were some epic adventurer, not because they slew a creature of darkness, not because they've caught the eye of the elite but because they have the Echo. Apparently having this ability is more important than clout, which did not make sense to me during ARR but in hind sight it's fucking brilliant storytelling. None of the Company of Heros harbored the Echo, which would have been time rift changing had any of them did. The Echo is so powerful that the true enemy of Eorzea wants to harness it to summon their one true god. The Warrior of Light is not evil nor malevolent, so it makes sense for the Scions to snatch them up while our Warrior of Light is still innocent. Now, I already know what some of you are thinking, "This is the part of the MSQ that took the longest." YES! Yes it is. Wanna know why? It's because our Warrior of Light is transitioning from Adventurer to a true Warrior of Light, and as I mentioned this doesn't happen overnight. "BUT WE HAVE THE ECHO. AREN'T WE ALREADY THE WARRIOR OF LIGHT?"Hear me out. What if I told you that our Warrior of Light still needs to prove who they are before they can flaunt the title? I mean we don't even get to join a Grand Company until after we slay our first Primal, which was a good move on the Grand Company's end. This also implies that our Warrior of Light must earn everything despite their gift, and that simply having the Echo is not a privilege pass. We walk in the shadow of the Company of Heros who've done so much without the Echo. We really shouldn't be expecting much to be handed to us. The time we first spend with the Scions is a critical character development part for our Warrior of Light. We prove to Eorzea that we are the Warrior of Light with slaying various Primals and vanquishing the Garlean Empire's stronghold. Our Echo grows with us the more we slay the Primals and interact with the Ascians. We become familiar with the other Scion and begin to form a familial bond with our Archon allies. It's no wonder the pace of A Realm Reborn is "so slow and so long". But this is where things start to get interesting. META MOMENT: I'm writing this in perspective that you have completed the ARR storyline. If you've gone this far and haven't finished ARR then be warned of spoilers...that I haven't spoiled for you yet already. As a Scion we're voluntold to run across Thanalan, The Black Shroud, La Noscea, and Corethas NOT IN ORDER to deal with the neverending trail of the Primals. I won't lie, this is where I felt some time padding with the world traveling...knowing...the amount of gil it costs and how much time traveling alone takes. Okay yes there is a tad bit of crawl in the pacing during our time with the Scions. B-but it all has a purpose! We get to find Cid and his crew to make it to the real meat and potatoes we spent at least 100-200 hours getting to in game. THE WARRIOR OF LIGHT ARCSorry, I lost my composure for a moment. Deep breaths. Alright, now I'm back in the red pill zone. Awakening Cid to muster the strength we need to attack the Garlean Empire and get them out of our Eorzean home. This is the buildup that ACTUALLY rewards the player (us) for our time we have sunk into A Realm Reborn at this point. This is also where I feel our character truly becomes the Warrior of Light. We have slayed 3 Primals by the time we knock on the Garlean's door. Taking down the Garleans brings together the forces of the Grand Companies and the Scions to forge a strategy to cut off the Hydra's head. This is where the pace of the story comes to reason. When we realize that we had to spend the time we did exploring Eorzea to study and deal with the Primal threat. When our Warrior of Light cements themselves as the chosen one sent by the Mother Crystal to finish what the Company of Heros could not. This is where the pace of the story shows us that we are living in a world that is building around us. Worldbuilding not just for our Warrior of Lights journey, but Worldbuilding for Final Fantasy 14 in A Realm Reborn. There is no other game out there that really weaves the player character so deeply into the worldbuilding because A Realm Reborn is truly a story being retold from the ground up. The Calamity was the death of the Pheonix, and A Realm Reborn is the newborn forged from the ashes of the failure of 1.0. The pacing of A Realm Reborn is the foundation of a story being told from our Warrior of Light's perspective from a world that launched so bad it needed to be destroyed and reborn. Reborn with the introduction of the Warrior of Light and how they become the Protector of Eorzea. A story that is expanded on through Heavensward and beyond. A Realm Reborn is a living worldbuilding MMO that wants us to experience the life of the Warrior of Light in the Avatar we desire to live it through. And that is why I think that A Realm Reborn is the best possible place for our journey to begin, and that the story doesn't slack or suck in the way I have heard the community lament otherwise.
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AuthorThe Sin City Demon that's Hellbent on becoming your favorite FF14 Content Creator. Archives
May 2024
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