This is the first MMO to actually grab my attention. I won't go into much detail, as there are far better reveiws, but if you've never played an MMO before, or have and hated them, this may be a good pick.

Love the community(well most of it anyway), the battle system(fast, quick, and somewhat carried from class to class/jobs), the main story(it FEELS like a standalone FF...which you can probably beat in a month if that's all you want), the locations(Again, feels like a real FF game...which beautiful and strange places you'll love to visit), and the graphics(sure not the best on the market, but amazing enough to make it very, very immersive).

In addition to all this is the perks of being a paid member...continuous updates with support and content.

I'd at least play it for a month if it even slightly peaks your interest. And after that, since the class/job system is set up that you can DO ANYTHING another new toon can do, just pay the 12.99 fee instead of 14.99.

Oh...and CHOCOBOS!

So some of my friends told me to try it out so I did first things first I played it like I do Everquest, World of Warcraft or whatever MMO do whatever you want care later first thing i realized is you should actually follow the main story quest till about 30 because there are things you want chocobos, battle chocobo companions things that you don't know because it doesn't come with an instruction manual you can read in the bathroom!! but things happen and sometimes its interesting to find out on your own!

+'s
looks fine, maybe not as well as other platforms but don't see them first
combat is more fun on a controller for me
UI works better than would think on a console
performance isn't bad some load screens
lots to do
5 races to choose from seems small but job variability especially early lets you feel other classes

-'s
Occasional lag issues
Tradeskills require a lot of your day(but which mmo doesnt)
Gil is hard to get without a gather class early
requires doing main story to get certain selling and travel abilities
occasional targeting issues
hard to chat without keyboard (i didnt plan to with trial)

To begin the game starts out with a big war between cities and the empire who is unleashing magitech on the realms and bahumut comes out and blows the crap out of everything and heroes stop the mess and no one can remember them. Five years later the game begins and you are just a no name hero and begin with getting a crystal and abilities to see in to peoples past and then people see you as special. about as far into the story as i got.

Gameplay: combat is fast intuitive and keeps you on your toes as you go at the start moves are sparse but at regular intervals you get new skills to flesh out your class in addition you get cross class abilities if you train around and add to your arsenal whether it be casting protect and cure as a warrior or using a feint slow attack on your monk on demand or a regenerate health attack on hit move there is reason to train classes to an extent but how far is up to you. Most caster classes have heal abilities and most tanks are valued in this game early and late. Most dungeons consist of one tank one healer and 2 DPS classes it feels thought out but when it comes to doing the dungeons it all depends on the groups some smooth as sand some like sharp glass its an MMO so things happen.

Graphics: You can tell things are toned down a bit but things look fine if you have to have the best i'd assume go PS4 or a nice end PC but if you can handle other ps3 graphics it shouldn't be an issue.

Sound: Has your basic combat clangs biffs pows and kachows ,music is varied among regions you wont hear the same songs in the desert that you hear in the forest but would be nice if there was more variety in the same region... but thats if you actually keep the game music on,

Quests: The game is split up early into about four parts, quest, Fates class and tradeskill quests and story quest. To access some parts of the game you have to do the story quest due to some reasons like choosing a main city this is recommended to follow on your main class level or you'll miss out on other abilities. most normal quest are fetch kill normal mmo stuff. FATES are solo or group quests (preferably group) where anyone lvl 1 to 50 can jump in adjust their level and fight for a reward usually its better to be closer to the requested level but some middle level fates you'll see higher levels jump in all the time which can be quite helpful. Fates help gain rank in your main city exp and are sometimes your main way to level. Tradeskill and class quests happen every 5 levels and give you useful tools and in the case of class quests sometimes abilities.

Tradeskills: i usually find boring FF14 ARR isnt too different but when you start out the first 15 levels its pretty pain free every item tells you what you need and as you go they give you skills on how to improve and as the skills increase those skills basically tell you how to do it. Gathering is nearly the same you get skills as you go but it is the main way to make money in the game and that is not something easily gotten from quests or fighting.

Loot: From my trial run you either buy vendor gear get loot from dungeons or you make it. The game is very dungeon and or tradeskill based. enemies rarely drop gil except small gil from dungeons. so far up to lvl 33 i have not seen a solo mob drop a lick of gil but they may drop beast blood skins or what have you but if you want loot dungeon or make it.

Players: I read some reviews I play on the Malboro North American server players seem almost too nice they ask you to join their free companies(guilds) ALL THE TIME! I read reviews about people being abusive and mean I felt i was being treated too well as a noob to this game everyone was all asking me if I had questions in groups and dungeons and being courteous to even the wretched few who wouldnt turn off their damage stance as a cleric and go to healing. The community i felt was friendly i never saw any sour experiences except those who asked for it! some servers and experiences may differ but if you are experienced with MMO's its nothing new.

Summary: The game is a refresh from other MMO's something different to try with the good old FF spin on it with some past enemies like cactuars ect. It has its flaws but it is also easy to immerse into and when i saw the 15$ price point and a 30 day free trial as an past and present MMO player that isnt a bad place to start at the end of my trial i just went for the 3 month subscription and see where that will go but for those on the fence try the trial getting setup may be a pain for a few hours but if your a fan of MMO's and want to try a solid console experience give it a go! 8/10

While this game does give a lot of fan service, it's basically doing a lot of the same things over and over, day in and day out. Still, very graphically "pretty" and if you love Final Fantasy, then you will probably love this game, for a few months. It will get old and their cash shop (pay real money for game stuff) is shamelessly over expensive. Outfits that give you ZERO benefits when worn will cost you money, even as silly as $15 for an outfit with a haircut. If you miss an event, you will have to wait 1 year to buy the event rewards (which were free last year, but this year you will spend over $10 for things most got for free. Also the people in the game can be very toxic and the company that runs this has HORRIBLE customer service. When you call their not free phone number, you will wait from 50 minutes to 2 hours to get someone on the phone and when they are on the phone, you MUST be extremely nice to them or they will hang up on you. Even normal/neutral conversation will get them to give you attitude and if you return the attitude, they will hang up on you and you will have to make another, non-free, call to them, with another 1-2 hours of being on hold and you better be nice. Also, after all of that, you will learn that the company does not help with the majority of your concerns and they will not make any exceptions to any rules (there are known cases of customers having autism and letting them know and they still treat the customer like they are bothering the employees, it will not increase their helpfulness nor friendliness.) My honest advice is to just avoid this company completely. I've had to call them a few times over the years and only once was I helped and three times I was hung up on (twice for asking for a manager/supervisor and once for asking for help with something they didn't want to help with, the employee even went as far as telling me that I was lucky I was even allowed to play the game since employees cannot not so I should not complain (I was calling over their payment system locking me out for a month because I put the wrong last digit on the credit card, tried twice and that was enough for them to lock me out of the game for a month...they even said that the system is out of their hands and they can't override the payment lock-out...) Just avoid Square-Enix until they actually offer customer service that actually helps and doesn't treat customers like criminals.

this game is, unfortunately, a lot more fun than I was expecting. i bought it because it was on sale, and a friend really wanted to play together. i hate subscription games, but i caved, figuring it wasn't too bad a price. I LOVE IT. it's so much better than square's last final fantasy mmo. they just really need to move away from the monthly sub thing, that's worth more than one docked star for me. i don't want to spend x00 dollars a year on a game that gives me as much entertainment as any of the other final fantasy games.

Waste of money. Restrigation code won't work, plus you have to pay to play online? So I spend double the amount of money for nothing, they should tell you this instead of making us do a bunch of research before hand.